Glass 




Book , P^|- 



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Simple Studies 

in 



The Revelation 




BY 

William L. Pettingill 



SIMPLE STUDIES 



THE REVELATION 



BY 

WILLIAM L. PETTI NGILL 

II 



FOURTH EDITION. 
17th Thousand. 



1916 

Published by 
FRED, KELKER 
P. O. Box 216, Harrisburg, Pi. 

U. S. A. 



This book is not sold, but will be sent to any 
address free of charge as we feel led. 

Its circulation is supported entirely by vol- 
untary offerings. 



Copyright, 1906. 
By FRED. KELKER, 
Harrisburg, Pa. 



FEB -6 19.18 



STRUCTURAL PLAN OF THE REVELATION. 



The Introduction — Chapter i : 1-8, 

Part I. — "The things which thou sawest." — Chapter 



i : 9-20, 9 

Part II. — "The things which are." — Chapters 2 and 3, 13 
Part III. — "The things which shall come to pass after 

these things." — Chapters 4 to 22, 19 

Section 1. The Rapture of the Church. Chapter 4,.. 19 
Section 2. The Great Day of Redemption. Chapter 5, 24 
Section 3. The Wrath to Come. Chapters 6 to 11, 31 

(1) The Seven Seals, . 32 

(2) The Tribulation Saints, 34 

(3) The Seven Trumpets, 35 

Section 4. The Trinity of Evil. Chapters 12 and 13, 39 

(1) The Great Red Dragon, 40 

(2) The Man of Sin, 45 

(3) The False Prophet, 46 

Section 5. Encouragement and Warning. Chapters 

14 and 15, 49 

Section 6. The Seven Last Plagues. Chapter 16, .. 61 
Section 7. Babylon the Great. Chapters 17 and 18, .. 71 
Section 8. The Two Great Suppers. Chapter 19, .. 82 

(1) The Marriage Supper of the Lamb,... 85 

(2) The Coming of the Son of Man, .... 87 

(3) The Battle of Har-Magedon, 88 

(4) The Great Supper of God, 89 

Section 9. The Millennial Reign. Chapter 20, 92 

(1) The Binding of Satan, 95 

(2) The First Resurrection, 98 

(3) The Millennial Kingdom, 99 

(4) The Loosing of Satan, 101 

(5) The Last War, 102 

(6) The Judgment of Satan, 102 

(7) The Second Resurrection and the Sec- 
ond Death, 103 

Section 10. The New Heaven and New Earth. Chap- 
ter 21 : 1-8, 106 

(1) No More Sea, 109 

(2) The Holy City, no 

(3) The Eternal State, 111 

Section 11. Our Saviour's Parting Word. Chapter 

21:9 to 22 : 21, 117 

(1) The Earthly Jerusalem, 119 

(2) The Heavenly Jerusalem, 121 

(3) His Parting Message, 129 



£, Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our 

sins by His blood; and He made us a Kingdom, 
priests unto His God and Father; to Him be the 
glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen." 



THE INTRODUCTION 



(Chapter i: 1-8.) 

"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear 
the words of the Prophecy, and keep the things that 
are written therein: for the time is at hand." (Rev. 

i:3) 

The Revelation is the most neglected book 
in the New Testament, despite the fact that 
God has offered very great inducements for its 
study. In addition to the general blessing at- 
tending any intelligent study of the Scriptures, 
special blessing is promised to those who give 
attention to this last book in the Bible. The 
third verse of chapter 1 says: "Blessed is he 
that readeth, and they that hear the words of 
the prophecy, and keep the things that are 
written therein." 

There is a general impression that the book 
of The Revelation is exceedingly hard to un- 
derstand, because it is so full of signs and sym- 
bols. Every book in the Bible is hard to un- 
derstand, from the natural human standpoint. 
"The natural man receiveth not the things of 
the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto 
him : neither can he know them, because they 
are spiritually discerned." (1. Cor. 2:14.) 
The Revelation is no exception — it can be 
understood only by those who yield them- 
selves to the Spirit of Truth that He may guide 

5 



6 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. ! 



them into the truth. As for the signs and sym- 
bols, we ought not to object to them, for they 
are always explained, either where they are 
employed, or elsewhere in the Bible. Men call 
this book a riddle, but God's name for it is 
"The Revelation of Jesus Christ." Unlike the 
Prophecy of Daniel, this book is not sealed. 
The Old Testament seer was commanded to 
shut up the words and seal his book to the 
Time of the End, but the writer of The Revela- 
tion was told to "seal not up the sayings of the 
prophecy of this book, for the Time is at 
hand." (Compare Daniel 12:4; Rev. 22:10.) 

The first eight verses of chapter 1 are in- 
troductory. The nature of the communication 
which follows is given in verses 1 to 3. It is 
the revelation, or unveiling, of Jesus Christ, 
which God gave to Him, to show unto His 
servants things which must shortly come to 
pass. It comes to us through John, who got 
it from an angel and who bears record of the 
Word of God and of the testimony of Jesus 
Christ, and of all things that he saw. Bless- 
ing is here for whoever shall read or hear the 
words or keep the things written herein, for 
the time is at hand. The salutation, which 
follows, is from John the Exile, to the seven 
churches in Asia. It is also from the Eternal 
God, from Him Which is, and Which was and 
Which is to come. It is also from the Spirit 
of God, in all His fullness — the seven Spirits 
which are before His throne. This is the first 



THE INTRODUCTION. , 7 



symbol in the book, and it is not explained 
here, because of the similar symbol of the 
Holy Ghost in Isaiah 11:2. It is also from 
Jesus Christ, the Faithful Witness, the First- 
begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the 
Kings of the Earth. These titles are all signif- 
icant in this place. They set forth our Lord's 
threefold office work as Prophet, Priest and 
King. In His prophetic office He is the Faith- 
ful Witness; it was as the Great High Priest 
over the House of God that He came forth 
from among the dead, the First-fruits of them 
that slept ; and as King He is the Ruler of the 
Kings of the Earth, the King of Kings and 
Lord of Lords. 

John breaks out into doxology in verses 5 
and 6, "unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us 
from our sins in His own blood, and hath made 
us kings and priests unto God and His Fa- 
ther; to Him be glory and dominion for ever 
and ever, Amen !" Then in verse 7, the central 
theme of the book rings out with trumpet 
sound: "Behold, He cometh with clouds! 
And every eye shall see Him, and they also 
which pierced Him ! And all kindreds of the 
Earth shall wail because of Him !" It is not 
the Rapture of the Church that John speaks of 
here, but the Revelation of the Lord Jesus from 
Heaven. It is not His coming for His saints, 
but His coming with them. Not of our being 
caught up to meet the Lord in the air, but of 
the glorious appearing of the Son of Man at 



8 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



His coming afterwards in the clouds of Heav- 
en with power and great glory — as Enoch pro- 
phesied: "Behold, the Lord cometh with my- 
riads of His saints to execute judgment upon 
all." This is the center of The Revelation. 

The words, "Even so, amen !" in verse 7, 
probably belong to verse 8. The Lord Him- 
self is speaking and He says, "Even so, amen ! 
I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the 
Ending, saith the Lord, Which is, and Which 
was, and Which is to come, the Almighty." 
This is an unusual title in the New Testament. 
It is El Shaddai, the name by which God re- 
vealed Himself unto Abraham. It is signifi- 
cantly brought in here, for this book is filled 
with wonders which could be brought about 
only by almightiness, and God is to demon- 
strate in this book that He is still the Lord 
God Omnipotent Who reigneth, the Eternal 
God,, the Almighty. 



PART L— THE THINGS WHICH JOHN 

SAW. 



(Chapter i: 9-20.) 



"Write therefore the things which thou sawest, 
and the things which are, and the things which 
shall come to pass after these things." (Rev. 1: 19.) 

The Revelation is divided by our Lord Him- 
self into three parts. The first division proper 
begins at verse 9 of the first chapter. John, 
who was a prisoner on the island of Patmos 
for the Word of God and the testimony of 
Jesus Christ, was in the Spirit on the Lord's 
Day. This is the only time the expression, 
"the Lord's Day," is found in the Bible. There 
should be no doubt, however, as to its mean- 
ing, for from the earliest times of the Church 
this term was applied to the first day of the 
week, on account of the resurrection of our 
Lord on that day. The testimony of those liv- 
ing in John's time and thereafter in unbroken 
line is unanimous on this subject. What John 
means by being "in the Spirit" is probably 
similar to Paul's meaning in ii. Cor. 12:2-4, 
where he speaks of one — "a man in Christ," 
probably meaning himself — being caught up 
into Paradise, whether in the body or out of 
the body he could not tell. While in this state 
John heard a voice like a trumpet saying, 



ao SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



"What thou seest, write in a book and send it 
to the seven churches/' The apostle turned 
toward the voice and there burst upon his vis- 
ion such a sight that he was immediately 
stricken to the earth. It was Jesus, his be- 
loved Lord, but O, what a change ! Once be- 
fore John had seen Him in a transfigured 
state, but that was not like this.- This was 
Jesus in all His glory, even the glory which 
He had with the Father before the world was. 
He appeared in the glorious apparel of the 
Great High Priest and around and about Him 
were seven golden lampstands representing the 
churches. It is an apt symbol, for the churches 
are in the world to shine as lights, holding 
forth the word of life. There is undoubted 
reference here to the golden lampstand in the 
Tabernacle, which was a figure of Christ 
and the Church which is His body. The dif- 
ference is that here the type is of the separate 
outward visible churches, as they appear in 
the world in the sphere of testimony. 

There is an immense difference between the 
Church and the churches. The Church consists 
of all believers from Pentecost (Acts 2) to the 
Rapture (1. Thess. 4.) They are members of 
His body, all baptized by the one Spirit into 
the one body. The churches include all who 
profess His name. The Church is always in- 
divisible and ever energized by the life of Him 
Who is its Head. The churches are split into 
a thousand fragments and are often energized 



THE THINGS WHICH JOHN SAW. n 



by the activities of the flesh. The Church is 
the habitation of God by the Spirit. The 
churches are in many instances apostate from 
Christ and separate from God. 

The glorified Lord had in His right hand 
seven stars, which, He explained, typified the 
angels (i. e., messengers) of the churches ; 
and as judgment must begin at the House of 
God, out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two- 
edged sword (See i. Pet. 4: 17, Heb. 4: 12; Jno. 
12:48), and His countenance was as the sun 
shineth in His strength. John was prostrated 
by the vision, until the Lord Jesus laid His 
right hand upon him, renewing his strength. 
"Fear not/' He said, and these words must 
have had a familiar sound in John's ears. 
"Fear not; I am the First and the Last and 
the Living One ; and I was dead, and behold, 
I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys 
of Death and of Hades. Write therefore the 
things which thou sawest, and the things 
which are, and the things which shall come 
to pass after these things." This verse (Ch. 
1 : 19) is the key to The Revelation. In this 
threefold analysis we shall find the clearest 
possible outline of the structural plan of the 
book, as follows : 

First — "The things which thou sawest." 
This refers to John's vision of the Son of Man 
walking among the golden lampstands, given 
in chapter 1. 

Second — "The things which are." This sec- 



i2 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION 



tion includes the second and third chapters, 
as indicated by chapter 1:20: "The things 
which are" — that is, the present things, the 
things of the present dispensation — "are seven 
churches." In the seven letters to the Asiatic 
churches our Lord seems to have given in ad- 
vance a historic preview — a prophetic fore- 
view — of the earthly career of the churches, 
from John's time to the end of the age. 

Third — "The things which shall come to 
pass after these things." This is the final sec- 
tion, taking in the remainder of the book, chap- 
ters 4 to 22. In this last main division we have 
:he story of what shall transpire at the end 
of the present course of things — that is, after 
the wind-up of "the things which are," 



PART II.— THE THINGS WHICH ARE 



(Chapters 2 and 3.) 

"The mystery of the seven stars which thou saw- 
est in My right hand, and the seven golden candle- 
sticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven 
churches: and the seven candlesticks are seven 
churches." (Rev. 1:20.) 

The seven churches addressed by our Lord 
in the messages of chapters 2 and 3 were not 
chosen from among the whole number of 
churches in Asia on account of their relative 
importance, for it is apparent that, excepting 
Ephesus, most of them were comparatively un- 
important and obscure. These seven churches 
were evidently selected because they repre- 
sented, in their spiritual condition, the seven 
successive phases of the professing church 
throughout the present Age. Seven is the num- 
ber of completeness and these seven letters 
gave beforehand a complete view of what the 
churches should be during the seven succes- 
sive periods of the Dispensation. 

First. Ephesus stands for the latter part of 
the apostolic era — that is, at the time John 
wrote. The letter gives commendation for 
good remaining, but warns against the evils 
that threaten. Judaism had shown itself, for 
evil men had already attempted to introduce 
the doctrine of apostolic succession — they said 

13 



i4 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



they were apostles, and were not, and were 
found liars — but they had been rejected by 
the Church. There were Nicolaitans there also. 
This term doubtless describes those who 
sought to establish a separate order of priest- 
hood among believers. The word means con- 
queror, or ruler, of the laity, or people. In 
our day this sin is so prevalent that it occa- 
sions no comment whatever. The churches 
set their pastors in a class by themselves and 
call them "Divines" and "the Clergy." They 
apply titles to them, as "Reverend," "Very 
Reverend," "Right Reverend/ 'and on through 
the list, until the pope is blasphemously called 
the "Holy Father." All this is most unscrip- 
tural and dishonoring to God. "Holy and rev- 
erend is His name" only, and He Himself is 
the only "Holy Father." (See Ps. in : 9; Jno. 
17:11.) As for the Church of God, it is an 
equal brotherhood, and whoever divides it into 
unequal parts, as clergy and laity, is introduc- 
ing schism into the body and is guilty of Nico- 
laitanism. Our Lord Jesus hates the deeds of 
the Nicolaitans and commends the Ephesian 
Church for hating these deeds also. Never- 
theless, there is spiritual declension already 
noticed, for this Church had left her first love. 
The warning is sharp — Remember, repent and 
do the first works. Otherwise there is judg- 
ment awaiting the Church, whose lampstand 
will be removed. As for those individuals who 
should survive the wreck, the real believers or 



THE THINGS WHICH ARB. 15 



overeomers, they are promised the joy of the 
iTree of Life in the Paradise of God. 

Second. The Smyrna period immediately 
followed the apostolic era. Great suffering is 
threatened, but the crown of life will be the 
reward of faithfulness. Judaism is rampant 
during the Smyrna period, men claiming to be 
Jews who are of the synagogue of Satan. The 
tribulation ten days probably refers to the ten 
distinct attempts during two hundred years 
to crush out the infant church. The sentence, 
"Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give 
thee a crown of life," is found many times en- 
graved on the walls of the catacombs of Rome. 

Third. The Church of the Pergamum per- 
iod showed in its early stages the purifying 
effects of the Smyrna sufferings. Dwelling 
where Satan's throne was, the whole world 
lying in the Wicked One, the Church held fast 
the name and the faith of Jesus. But just 
then Emperor Constantine's professed con- 
version occurred and the Church yielded to 
the temptation her Lord had overcome and 
allied herself with the world and settled down 
at ease. Church and State were united and 
the Church became the world's mistress. 
Whole legions of soldiers were marched to 
the rivers and baptized — not into Christ in- 
deed, but "into favor." Heathen temples be- 
came "Christian churches" and heathen priests 
became "Christian priests." This alliance with 
the world is the doctrine of Balaam so strong- 



16 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



ly condemned and the deeds of the Nicolaitans 
are now based upon a recognized doctrine, 
which thing the Lord hates. Judgment is 
again threatened for the corrupt Church and 
deliverance for the overcomer. 

Fourth. The Thyatiran period showed a 
great preponderance of evil. The Lord did not 
fail to see and commend works and love and 
service and faith and endurance. But the 
woman Jezebel was suffered there. This 
marks the rise of the papacy and the awful de- 
scent of the Church into the dark ages of 
medieval Rome. The Old Testament Jezebel 
was the heathen wife of a Jewish king who 
upheld idolatry, set up an idolatrous priest- 
hood, and put to death the Lord's prophets. 
She carried out the doctrine of Balaam to its 
full extent. It is written of her husband in i. 
Kings 21 : 25, that he sinned so that there 
was none like unto Ahab which did sell him- 
self to work wickedness in the sight of Jeho- 
vah, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. The 
history of the Thyatiran period corresponds 
perfectly with all this. Professing to be the 
bride of Christ, the so-called Church became 
married to heathenism and stirred up more, 
wickedness than can be found in any other 
period of Church history. No one who reads 
that history can doubt that this is a picture of 
Rome, the wicked Jezebel. 

Fifth. Sardis comes next. The Protestant 
Reformation brought the dawn of the morn- 



THE THIXGS WHICH ARB. 



17 



ing from the dark night of the middle ages. 
But the Reformed churches soon lapsed into 
cold lifeless formalism and the picture in the 
epistle to the Sardian Church is of this latter 
phase of that period. "Thou hast a name that 
thou livest and art dead.'' There was the form 
of godliness but little of its power. A few 
names were left, however, whose garments 
were not defiled and they shall walk with Him 
in white. 

Sixth. Philadelphia is a phase of the Church 
growing out of the Reformation period. The 
word means ''brotherly love'' and the Phila- 
delphia Church is made up of the few names 
that were left in Sardis — the remnant who are 
keeping themselves unspotted from the world. 
He that hath the key of David is watching 
over them. He finds no fault in them, but 
commends them because they have a little 
strength, having strengthened the things 
which remained. "Because thou hast kept the 
word of My patience," says the Lord to them, 
"I will keep thee from the hour of temptation, 
which shall come upon the world. .. Behold, 
I come quickly ; hold fast that which thou hast, 
that no man take thy crown." 

Seventh. Laodicea is the last period of 
Church historv. All who are not of Philadel- 
phia are of Laodicea. The word "Laodicea" 
means "the people's rights," and surely many 
of the churches of these last days have become 
the "people's churches." Nominally the Lord 



18 SIMP LB STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



Jesus is their Head, but really He is shut out. 
He says, "Behold, I stand at the door and 
knock." Lukewarm is the exact word to de- 
scribe the condition of many so-called Christian 
churches of these days, and He who is about 
to come will spue them out of His mouth. 
Meanwhile if any man hear His voice and 
open the door, the Lord will come in unto 
him and sup with him and he with Him. "To 
him that overcometh" — and the overcoming 
is by the blood of the Lamb — "To him that 
overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My 
throne, even as I also overcame, and am set 
down with My Father in His throne. " 

Can there be any doubt in view of the im- 
port of these letters to the churches, that we 
are now living in the last days, the days of the 
apostate Church, the Church of the Laodi- 
ceans? And if that be so, then our Lord is 
about to come. May God help us to be ever 
ready for His coming — ever "serving the liv- 
ing and true God and waiting for His Son from 
Heaven. ,, He that hath an ear, let him hear 
what the Spirit saith to the churches. 



PART III. — AFTER THESE THINGS. 



Section i. — The Rapture of the Church. 

(Chapter 4.) 

"But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, 
concerning them that fall asleep; that ye sorrow not, 
even as the rest, who have no hope. For if we 
believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them 
also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring 
with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of 
the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto 
the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede 
them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself 
shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the 
voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: 
and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we that 
are alive, that are left, shall together with them be 
caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the 
air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Where- 
fore comfort one another with these words." (1. 
Thess. 4: 13-18.) 

We have now reached the third and final 
main division of our book. The things which 
John saw on that memorable Lord's Day in 
Patmos were described for us - in the first 
chapter. The earthly career of the churches 
and their failure as a center of testimony — 
"the things which are" — were set forth in 
the seven letters of chapters 2 and 3. The 
third section begins with the first verse of the 
fourth chapter and includes all the rest of 

19 



20 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



the book. It is a detailed description of what 
shall follow the close of the Church age — 
"the things which shall come to pass after 
these things." 

"After these things I saw, and behold, a door 
opened in heaven, and the first voice which I 
heard, a voice as of a trumpet speaking with 
me, One saying, Come up hither, and I will 
show thee the things which must come to pass 
after these things." (Ch. 4: 1.) 

The door opened in Heaven is a symbol easy 
of understanding, for there is but one door 
into Heaven — even Jesus Himself, w T ho said, 
"I am the Door; by Me if any man enter in, he 
shall be saved." The voice, as of a trumpet, 
is the voice of Jesus, as John explains, the first 
voice which he heard. The words, "Come up 
hither!" are possibly the very words we shall 
hear when "the Lord Himself shall descend 
from Heaven with a shout." (1. Thess. 4: 16.) 
When He raised Lazarus from the dead He 
shouted with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come 
forth !" When He comes for His people, His 
dead and living saints, He will again shout 
with a loud voice, saying, "Come up hither !" 

It is hard for John to describe what follow- 
ed. "Straightway," he says, "I was in the 
Spirit. " He was, like Paul's "man in Christ, " 
caught up into Paradise, to see the Lord face 
to face. There are some experiences which 
words cannot define, and this was one of 
them. So will it be for every Christian when 



THE RAPTURE OP THE CHURCH. 21 



Jesus comes. All shall be caught up to meet 
the Lord in the air. We shall never be able to 
tell anyone all about it ; it is too great for 
human language. "The dead in Christ shall 
rise first; then we which are alive and remain 
shall be caught up together with them." It 
is our hope that we may be among those who 
are alive at His coming. True, it will be 
glorious to be brought out of the grave by 
His shout of triumph, but, 

"O Joy! O delight! Should we go without dying! 
No sickness, no sadness, no dread and no crying! 
Caught up through the clouds with our Lord into 
glory, 

When Jesus receives His own!" 

John is at once occupied with the glorious 
Occupant of the throne. W e shall never be 
done looking at Him. Eternity will hardly 
suffice for our gazing upon Him. What a 
glorious time will that be, when we shall al- 
ways behold the face of our Father, which 
is in Heaven ! 

But there are other thrones, four-and-twenty 
of them. The number of these thrones and the 
elders occupying them is the number of the 
courses in the Aaronic priesthood. Thus these 
elders are enthroned priests. They wear gold- 
en, incorruptible crowns. All these marks in- 
dicate that here we have the Church of God 
enthroned in Heaven with her £,ord. He hath 
made us kings and priests and we shall reign 
with Him. 



22 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



The lightnings and thunders and voices pro- 
ceeding from the throne show that the throne 
of grace has become a throne of judgment. 
And yet there is the rainbow around and above, 
all speaking of grace to follow the flood of 
wrath about to burst upon the rebellious 
earth. "In wrath/' He will "remember 
mercy." The glassy sea is typical, as the 
laver and molten sea of the Tabernacle and 
the Temple, of the Word of God. The four 
living creatures appear elsewhere in Scripture, 
and are always in connection with the manifes- 
tation of the glory of God in the person of 
Jesus Christ. Thus they overshadowed the 
mercy-seat in the Tabernacle of Moses, and 
the Temple of Solomon ; they were embroider- 
ed on the vail, which typified His flesh (Heb. 
10: 19-22) ; they were seen in Ezekiel's vision 
of the glory of God, and they correspond with 
the four Gospels, in which we see Jesus show- 
ing forth, in a fourfold way, the glory of the 
Father. In Matthew He appears as the Lion 
of the Tribe of Judah, the King of Israel — 
"the first living creature was like a lion." In 
Mark He is the devoted Servant, toiling pa- 
tiently, according to His Father's will, and 
finally laying down His life for others — "the 
second living creature was like an ox." In 
Luke He is seen as Son of Man, the represen- 
tative of a lost race, identified with it and bear- 
ing its sins — "the third living creature had a 
face as of a man." In John He is the Son of 



THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH. 23 



God, the Heavenly Visitor, coming forth from 
Heaven and returning to Heaven — "the fourth 
living creature was like a flying eagle." 

The names of Deity employed in the song of 
praise of the four living creatures, "Lord God 
Almighty" — Jehovah Elohim Shaddai — are all 
Hebrew names and connected with Jewish 
covenant relations, showing that the Church 
is not now in view, having been taken from the 
earth, and that God is about to resume definite 
relation with His people Israel. In the song 
in which the elders join at the close of the 
chapter He is addressed as "Our Lord and our 
God," which is far more appropriate to the 
Church. However, when He shall come in the 
clouds of Heaven with power and great glory, 
they which pierced Him shall recognize in 
their Messiah the Jehovah of the Old Cove- 
nant and the Jesus of the New, and He will 
then be their Lord as well as ours, and their 
God as well as ours — our Lord and our God ! 
Blessed be His holy name for ever and ever! 



PART III.— SECTION 2.— THE GREAT 
DAY OF REDEMPTION. 



(Chapter 5.) 

"The sufferings of this present time are not worthy 
to be compared with the glory which shall be re- 
vealed to us-ward." (Ro. 8: 18.) 

The fourth chapter closes with a glad chorus 
of praise and thanksgiving to God. As the 
fifth opens, our prophet is gazing with rapt 
ecstasy upon that glorious One sitting upon the 
throne. "And I saw in the right hand of Him 
that sat on the throne a book (or scroll) writ- 
ten within and on the back, close sealed with 
seven seals." (v. 1.) Whatever this scroll 
was, it was clearly a complete record of some- 
thing. It was completely filled, for it was 
written within and on the back; it was com- 
pletely sealed, for it was sealed with seven 
seals. It is also obvious that the opening of 
the scroll was a matter of intense importance. 
No one was found worthy either to open the 
book, or to loose its seals, or even to look 
thereon. John was greatly overcome by this 
fact, and wept much because no one was found 
worthy to open the book or look thereon. 

Then one of the elders spoke. The elders, 
as we have seen, represented the enthroned 
Church, and surely the Church knows Who is 

24 



THE GREAT DAY OF REDEMPTION. 25 



the worthy One. If it be a question of who is 
worthy, there can be but one answer. "Weep 
not/' said the elder. "Behold, the Lion that 
is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, 
hath overcome, to open the book and the seven 
seals thereof." (v. 5.) 

Well do we know Him. He is the Root and 
Offspring of David, and the Bright and Morn- 
ing Star. Surely, He hath overcome. But 
how? "And I saw in the midst of the throne 
and of the four living creatures, and in the 
midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as 
though it had been slain, having seven horns, 
and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of 
God, sent forth into all the Earth. " (v. 6.) 
He overcame as a Lamb (Isa. 53:7), and all 
our overcoming is by the blood of the Lamb. 
(Rev. 12:11.) John saw Him as a Lamb 
standing. He now sits for us at the right hand 
of God ; in that day "He shall stand as an en- 
sign for the people" (Isa. 11:10); "Jehovah 
standeth up to plead ; He standeth to judge the 
peoples." (Isa. 3 : 13.) 

But how strange is this language ! He was 
as a Lamb standing, "as though it had been 
slain." Blessed be God, the Lamb slain was 
not holden by the bands of death ! He was 
dead, but He is alive again ; He was slain, but 
He standeth! And He has all power, as shown 
by the seven horns, and all wisdom, as shown 
by the seven eyes, "which are the seven Spirits 



26 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



of God" — a figure of the fullness of the Holy 
Spirit. (Compare Zech. 3:8 — 4:10.) 

"And He came, and he taketh it out of the 
right hand of Him that sat on the throne." 
(v. 7.) Whatever the significance of this act, 
so briefly described, it must have been tre- 
mendously important, for all Heaven straight- 
way burst into joyous acclaim, the moment it 
was accomplished. "And when He had taken 
the book, the four living creatures and the 
four and twenty elders fell down before the 
Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden 
bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of 
the saints. And they sing a new song, saying, 
Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open 
the seals thereof : for Thou wast slain, and 
didst purchase unto God with Thy blood men 
of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and na- 
tion, and madest them to be unto our God a 
Kingdom and priests ; and they reign upon the 
Earth. 

"And I saw, and I heard a voice of many 
angels round about the throne and the living 
creatures and the elders ; and the number of 
them was ten thousand times ten thousand, 
and thousands of thousands; saying with a 
great voice, Worthy is the Lamb that hath 
been slain to receive the power, and riches, 
and wisdom, and might, and honour, and glory, 
and blessing. 

"And every created thing which is in the 
Heaven, and on the Earth, and under the 



THE GREAT DAY OF REDEMPTION. 27 



Earth, and on the sea, and all things that are 
in them, heard I saying, Unto Him that sitteth 
on the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the bless- 
ing, and the honour, and the glory, and the 
dominion, for ever and ever. 

"And the four living creatures said, Amen. 
And the elders fell down and worshipped." 
(vs. 8-14.) 

From the character of these remarkable 
songs, and by comparing with other Scrip- 
tures, we may find the meaning of the myster- 
ious book and the circumstances surrounding 
its transfer into our Lord's hands. The book 
is very evidently nothing else but the title deed 
to this "Earth and the fullness thereof, the 
world and they that dwell therein." His at the 
beginning by right of creation, it now becomes 
His for ever by right of redemption. Jesus 
appears in this picture as the Goel or Kins- 
man-Redeemer, claiming and establishing 
His right of redemption. 

In the seventh chapter of Daniel there is a 
prophetic description of the transfer of univer- 
sal dominion into the hands of the Lord Jesus. 
Beginning at the ninth verse, Daniel says : "I 
beheld till the thrones were cast down, and 
the Ancient of Days did sit, Whose garment 
was white as snow, and the hair of His head 
like the pure wool : His throne was like the 
fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A 
fiery stream issued and came forth from be- 
fore Him : thousand thousands ministered unto 



28 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



Him. and ten thousand times ten thousand 
stood before Him : the judgment was set, and 
the books were opened. * * * * * j saw j n 
the night visions, and, behold, One like the 
Son of Man came with the clouds of Heaven, 
and came to the Ancient of Days, and they 
brought Him near before Him. And there 
was given Him dominion, and glory, and a 
Kingdom, that all people, nations, and lan- 
guages, should serve Him : His dominion is 
an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass 
away, and His Kingdom that which shall not 
be destroyed. ***** And the Kingdom and 
dominion, and the greatness of the Kingdom 
under the whole Heaven, shall be given to the 
people of the saints of the Most High, whose 
Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and all 
dominions shall serve and obey Him." (Dan. 
7:9, 10, 13, 14, 27.) 

In Philippians 2 : 10, 11, it is declared that, 
according to God's eternal purpose, the time 
is coming when at the name of Jesus every 
knee shall bow, of things in Heaven, and 
things on Earth, and things under the Earth, 
and every tongue shall confess that Jesus 
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father 
The fulfillment of that word is seen in the 
chapter before us. 

An illustration of this great event is given in 
the thirty-second chapter of Jeremiah. (See 
especially verses 14, 15.) The incident de- 
scribed there is very likely recorded as a type. 



THE GREAT DAY OP REDEMPTION. 29 



Another very beautiful illustration is seen in 
the story of Ruth. Jesus is our Boaz — our 
Mighty Man of Wealth. He hath redeemed 
us. No one else could have done it. He alone 
was able and He alone was worthy. His right 
will be unquestioned in that day. No one but 
Him could loose the seals. We are all by na- 
ture in bondage to the Prince of this World 
— in the power of the enemy — sold under sin. 
He hath prevailed for us and bought us back. 

This, then, is that for which everything 
waits and towards which everything tends — 
the great Day of Redemption. This is the 
day in Paul's mind when in the midst of af- 
fliction he cries out, "I reckon that the suffer- 
ings of this present time are not worthy to be 
compared with the glory which shall be re- 
vealed to us-ward. For the earnest expecta- 
tion of the creation waiteth for the revealing 
of the sons of God. * * * The creation itself 
also shall be delivered from the bondage of 
corruption into the liberty of the glory of the 
children of God. For we know that the whole 
creation groaneth and travaileth in pain to- 
gether until now. And not only so, but our- 
selves also, which have the firstfruits of the 
Spirit, even we ourselves groan within our- 
selves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the 
redemption of our body." (Rom. 8: 18-23.) 

Our eyes should ever be on that Day, as the 
apostle exhorts us, in Eph. 4:30, to "grieve 
not the Holy Spirit of God, by Whom ye are 



30 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



sealed unto the Day of Redemption." May we 

not, then, join in the glad alleluias of the 
heavenly choirs? for we are amongst those 
who, "having believed, were sealed with the 
Holy Spirit of Promise, which is the earnest of 
our inheritance, unto the redemption of the 
purchased possession." 



PART HI— SECTION 3.— THE WRATH 

TO COME. 



(Chapter 6:1 — 11:19.) 

"Ye turned unto God from idols, to serve a living 
and true God, and to wait for His Son from Heaven, 
Whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, Who 
delivereth us from the wrath to come." (1. Thess. 
1:9, 10.) 

The law of structure in The Revelation is 
exactly similar to that in Daniel's Prophecy. 
The opening vision in Daniel, the dream of 
Nebuchadnezzar, gives the full history of the 
Times of the Gentiles, or the period of Gentile 
political domination in the Earth, beginning 
with Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar and 
reaching down to the Beast-King of the End Time 
and even to the Christ Himself as King of Kings 
and Lord of Lords, sitting upon David's throne. 
The succeeding visions in Daniel are mostly 
parallel with this dream of the Chaldean mon- 
arch, each successive vision, however, taking 
up the story at a new point and proceeding 
with greater detail. 

This principle is found also in The Revela- 
tion. The seven seals give the complete his- 
tory of the awful judgments to come upon the 
world after the Church is caught up to meet 
the Lord in the air. Then the seven trumpets 



32 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION 



run parallel with the seals, though from a new 
view point and in greater detail. So with the 
seven vials or bowls also. Each of these three 
groups of sevens are but three pictures of what 
will go on in the Earth during the seven years 
defined as the seventieth week of Daniel and 
spoken of by the prophet, and by our Lord 
Jesus in Matthew 24, as the time of The Great 
Tribulation. This period includes "the wrath to 
come" (1 Thess. 1:9, 10), "the day of Jacob's 
trouble" (Jer. 30 : 7). It will be the time of God's 
great and sore judgment upon the world for the 
rejection of His Son. The Church of God will 
be delivered from passing through this furnace 
of affliction by the Rapture which precedes 
it, though there will be so-called churches in 
the world through it all. Many institutions 
are called churches which have no right to the 
name, and there are multitudes of persons pro- 
fessing to be Christians who have never been 
born again. All these will be left behind when 
He comes for His people, but every child of 
God by the new birth will surely go with Him. 
All the judgments of "The Great Tribulation" 
will be witnessed from Heaven by the en- 
throned and glorified people of God, as they 
were thus witnessed by the Apostle John as 
their representative. 

The Seven Seals. 

In the 24th chapter of Matthew our Lord 
Jesus gave a summary of the judgments of 



THE SEAL JUDGMENTS. 33 



"The Great Tribulation," which we shall find 
to correspond precisely with the story of the 
seven seals. He pointed out that in that day 
there should be, first, false Christs, deceiving 
many. In connection with the first seal the 
rider on the white horse is a false Christ, 
doubtless the Beast-King of Rev. 13, presenting 
himself as a great and triumphant ruler, hav- 
ing great success, going forth conquering and 
to conquer. Secondly, our Lord said there 
should be wars and rumors of wars. The sec- 
ond seal brings forth a rider on a blood red 
horse, who takes peace from the Earth. Third- 
ly, we are warned of that inevitable follower of 
universal war, that is, universal famine. And 
under the third seal there is seen a rider on a 
black horse, bringing great famine, during 
which it will take a whole day's wages to buy 
a quart of wheat or three quarts of barley. The 
oil and wine, being luxuries instead of necessi- 
ties, are not affected. Pestilences and earth- 
quakes are the next thing on the programme 
in Matthew 24 and the fourth rider is Death 
on a pale horse with Hades following, the very 
Earth opening wide her greedy mouth for the 
unwonted harvest of death, the result of war 
and famine and pestilence. 

The seven seals are divided into groups of 
four and three, the reason for which will ap- 
pear as we go on. Under the fifth seal we 
find our Lord's words true again, for He said 
there should be afflictions, many killed for 



34 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



their witness to the truth, the Gospel of the 
Kingdom being preached, for a testimony unto 
all nations. So here we see the souls of these 
martyrs under the altar crying for vengeance. 
Their language identifies them as Jews, and 
Jews will be the evangelists of that day. 

The Lord Jesus, in His Olivet discourse, 
next went on to describe the great convulsions 
of nature to follow these afflictions of His peo- 
ple. He said that the sun and moon should 
be darkened, the stars falling from Heaven 
and the powers of the Heavens shaken. The 
sixth seal brings all this to pass. The silence 
for a half hour in Heaven, followed by thun- 
der and voices and lightnings and an earth- 
quake, all the signs of judgment, is, I doubt 
not, the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven — 
to be followed by His coming in the clouds of 
Heaven with power and great glory to set up 
His throne and reign. 

The Tribulation Saints. 

In the seventh chapter we have a parenthet- 
ical passage, telling us of the Tribulation 
saints who are turned to the Lord in the midst 
of the awful scenes of judgment described in 
this book. There are the 144,000 of the Jewish 
remnant and then the innumerable company 
of palm bearers, those who have come up out 
of The Great Tribulation, having washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb. Thus we see that by means of judg- 



THE TRUMPET JUDGMENTS. 35 



ment God will bring multitudes to Himself out 
of the heathen nations and that then, as al- 
ways, in wrath He will remember mercy. 

The seventh seal (Ch. 8:1-5) shows the 
prayers of the saints, uniting with the incense 
from the golden altar, and bringing down upon 
the rebellious world the terrible judgments im- 
mediately preceding the coming of the Son of 
Man in the clouds of Heaven with power and 
great glory. 

The Seven Trumpets. 

Trumpets are typical of convocation, and 
the judgment of the trumpets is preparatory 
to the regathering of Israel to their own land. 
The seige of Jericho, when the seven blasts 
upon seven trumpets by the seven priests after 
the sevenfold march about the city on the sev- 
enth day were followed by the destruction oi 
the city, finds its antitype in the trumpet judg- 
ments of the Apocalypse. Jericho, the accurs- 
ed city, is ever a type of this world abiding 
under the curse and wrath of God. 

There is great danger in supposing every- 
thing in The Revelation to be symbolical. 
While there is no doubt that symbols abound 
in the book, they are carefully distinguished, 
and our rule of interpretation holds good here 
as elsewhere. "If the plain sense make good 
sense, seek no other sense." 

The seven trumpet judgments, as in the case 
of the seals, are divided into two groups. Four 
is the Earth or world number, and the first four 
judgments are seen to affect the natural world, 



36 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



and men only indirectly. The phenomena are 
such as are usually explained away as due to 
natural causes, leaving God out of the calcula- 
tion. The last three, and three is the Trinity 
number, are called the woe judgments, and are 
such as cannot thus be explained, as in them 
the hand of God is more directly discernible. 
God cannot always be explained away, much 
as His enemies may desire it. 

The first trumpet brings hail and fire, min- 
gled with blood, and results in terrible devas- 
tation in field and forest. God thus begins to 
speak to men in His sore displeasure, the Day 
of Grace having passed. 

The second judgment affects the sea, turn- 
ing part of it into blood and destroying life 
in a third part of it. So far, these judgments 
resemble those brought upon Pharoah when 
God had determined to deliver His people Is> 
rael. A greater Exodus will follow the judg- 
ments of the trumpets. 

The star falling from Heaven in the third 
judgment symbolizes Satan, whose expulsion 
from Heaven is described in detail in chapter 
12:7-12. (Compare Isaiah 14:12-15.) The 
wormwood judgment is in fulfillment of Jere- 
miah's prediction in chapter 9, verses 12 to 16, 
of his Prophecy. Israel and Palestine seem to 
be more especially involved. 

The fourth trumpet is similar to the sixth 
seal, except that it is limited to a third part of 
the sun, moon and stars. From Amos 8:9, 10 



THE TRUMPET JUDGMENTS. 37 



Israel seems to be especially concerned here 
also. 

Under the fifth trumpet the first of the three 
great woes comes upon the Earth. The star 
fallen to the Earth is the same as in the third 
judgment, that is, Satan. He releases from the 
Abyss a terrible army of "locusts, like unto 
horses prepared for war." This army is seen 
in Joel, 2d chapter. The leader is called "Abad- 
don" in Hebrew and "Apollyon" in Greek, 
both meaning "Destroyer" in English. He is 
doubtless the Beast-King, the "man of sin," the 
"son of perdition," the "angel of the Abyss." 
We shall become better acquainted with this 
terrible character in the succeeding chapters. 
He is the same as the rider on the white horse 
under the first seal judgment. 

Two hundred millions is the amazing num- 
ber of the army seen under the sixth trumpet 
in the second woe judgment. They are demons 
from the abyss, sent forth to torment men, "as 
the torment of a scorpion when he striketh a 
man." 

The third woe and the seventh trumpet are 
parallel with the seventh seal, bringing us up 
to the point of the coming of Messiah to reign 
on the Earth. Our Lord Jesus describes the 
same event in Matthew 24 : 29, 30. 

In chapters 10 and 11 we have a parentheti- 
cal passage which comes in between the sixth 
and seventh trumpets. The Strong Angel in 
chapter 10 is none other than the Lord Jesus 



38 SIMPLE STUDIES. IN THE REVELATION. 



Himself. A comparison with Daniel 10:5, 
6 and 12 : 6, 7, will explain this paragraph. 
Jerusalem is seen in chapter 11, with the Tem- 
ple restored, as in Ezekiel 40, but the city is 
to be trodden down of the Gentiles forty-two 
months, or three and a half years, the latter 
half of the seven years mentioned heretofore. 
(Compare Luke 21 : 24.) The two witnesses 
of chapter 11 are probably Elijah and Enoch, 
who were translated without death in view of 
their coming death in the streets of Jerusalem 
in the great Day of Tribulation, 



PART III.— SECTION 4— THE TRINITY 

OF EVIL. 



(Chapters 12 and 13.) 



"For this cause God shall send them strong delu- 
sion, that they should believe a lie." (11. Thess. 2: 
11.) 

Our studies so far have brought us to the 
end of the seven trumpet judgments, simul- 
taneous with the end of the seven seal judg- 
ments and also, as we shall see later, with the 
end of the seven vial or bowl judgments. Each 
of the sevenfold series of judgments brings us 
to the end of the period of seven years follow- 
ing the Rapture or catching up of the Church 
and to the very eve of the Revelation of the 
Lord Jesus from Heaven with myriads of His 
saints to execute judgment upon all. 

The twelfth chapter takes us back again, and 
not only to the beginning of the seven-years 
period, but away back to the beginning of the 
Christian era, now nineteen centuries ago, and 
nearly a hundred years before John's exile to 
Patmos. 

The woman arrayed with the sun, having 
the moon under her feet and upon her head 
twelve stars, travailing in birth, is Israel "of 
whom as concerning the flesh Christ came." 
The sun is symbolical of the Son of God Who 

39 



40 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



to Israel is the Sun of Righteousness. The 
moon is the Church of God, shining with the 
reflected light of her absent Lord. The woman 
appears between the sun and moon, showing 
Israel's place historically. The crown of 
twelve stars stands for the twelve tribes of 
Israel, seen as a unit from God's standpoint. 
These symbols are familiar to Bible students 
as coming from the Old Testament Scriptures. 
(Compare Genesis i: 14-18; 37:9, 10; Malachi 
4:2.) 

The Great Red Dragon. 

The Devil is next seen, as a great red dragon, 
having seven heads and ten horns. The seven 
heads doubtless suggest the perfection of dia- 
bolical subtlety and wisdom, while horns are 
everywhere a type of kingship, and there are 
diadems on the seven heads. The horns are 
ten, being the number of government. We 
have here, in short, Satan in full regalia and 
pomp as the Prince and God of this World. 
He is also seen as Prince of the Power of the 
Air, for his tail draweth a third part of the 
stars of Heaven and did cast them to the 
Earth. As we see from the next chapter, these 
stars are the fallen angels or demons who are 
to be cast down to the Earth with him. 

The dragon stands before the woman that 
is about to be delivered, that when she is de- 
livered he may devour her Child. Thus did 
Satan stand, prior to our Lord's birth in Beth- 



THE GREAT RED DRAGON. 



4i 



lehem, ready to destroy the Holy Child Jes"us. 
Herod the Great was actuated by satanic en- 
ergy when he slaughtered the infants in the 
vain hope of killing the Heir to David's throne. 

"And she was delivered of a Son, a Man 
Child, who is to rule all the nations with a 
rod of iron." We well know Him. It is He 
Who died on the cross for us that we might 
live and reign with Him. It is He of Whom 
the prophet sang, "Unto us a Child is born ; 
unto us a Son is given ; and the government 
shall be upon His shoulder; and His name 
shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the 
Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the 
Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His gov- 
ernment and of peace there shall be no end, 
upon the throne of David and upon His King- 
dom." (Isa. 9:6, 7.) It is He of Whom Ga- 
briel announced, "The Lord God shall give 
unto Him the throne of His father David, and 
He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, 
and of His Kingdom there shall be no end." 
(Luke 1 : 33.) It is He to Whom the promise 
was given : "Ask of Me, and I will give Thee 
the nations for Thine inheritance, and the ut- 
termost parts of the Earth for Thy possession. 
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; 
Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's 
vessel." (Ps. 2 : 8, 9.) 

The next thing told to us is that "the Child 
was caught up unto God, and unto His throne. 
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where 



42 SIMP LB STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



she hath a place prepared of God, that there 
they may nourish her a thousand, two hundred 
and threescore days." This shows that the 
woman in the type is not the Virgin Mary, and 
the fleeing into the wilderness is not Mary's 
flight into Egypt, for the woman does not flee 
into the wilderness with her Child, but after 
her Child has been caught up to Heaven. And 
her flight is not for the safety of her Child, 
as was Mary's, but for her own protection. 
The woman is the Jewish people in a figure. 
(See Isa. 9:6; 26 : 17 ; 66 : 6-9 ; Mic. 4 : 9, 10.) 

But the student is apt to find great diffi- 
culty here, and there is much need of follow- 
ing very diligently as the Spirit of Truth 
guides us in our study, ever remembering the 
divine rule of interpretation to "compare spir- 
itual things with spiritual." We are surprised, 
perhaps, at finding no mention of our Lord's 
earthly life or His death on the cross. This is 
because He is presented here not in His hu- 
miliation as the Man of Sorrows, but rather in 
His exaltation as King of Kings and Lord of 
Lords. Of course, John knew all about the 
thirty-three years of our Lord's earthly career, 
but John's pen was guided by the Holy Spirit 
and it was aside from His purpose to speak 
here of the sufferings of Christ. He is occu- 
pied, instead, with the glory that shall follow 
them. (See 1. Pet. 1 : 11.) 

The catching up of the Man Child unto God 
and unto His throne does not speak of the 



THE GREA T RED DRAGON. 43 



Ascension of Jesus from Mount Olivet, for 
that would be out of its proper place here. 
The ascension in the Spirit's mind is rather 
the catching up of the spiritual body of Christ, 
the event described in the fourth chapter of 
First Thessalonians and elsewhere. The Man 
Child is not yet complete. Up there in Heav- 
en there is our Lord Jesus in His physical 
body, but in the spiritual sense His body is 
still here. The Church is "His body, the full- 
ness of Him which filleth all in all." (Eph. I : 
23.) "We are members of His body, of His 
flesh and of His bones." (Eph. 5 : 30.) "For 
as the body is one and hath many members, 
and all the members of that one body, being 
many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by 
one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." 
(1. Cor. 12: 12, 13.) 

The Man Child is still in the process of birth. 
Thus the apostle writes in Galatians 4:19, 
"My little children, of whom I am again in 
travail until Christ be formed in you." The 
Holy Spirit is now in the world, working in 
the Church both to will and to do of His good 
pleasure, building up the body of Christ, and 
this will go on "till we all attain unto the unity 
of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son 
of God, unto a full grown Man, unto the meas- 
ure of the stature of the fullness of Christ/ 
(Phil. 2:13; Eph. 4:11-13.) This truth, as 
to the relation between the head and the body 
of Christ, is seen in 1. Timothy 3:16: "With- 



44 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



out controversy great is the mystery of godli- 
ness ; He Who was manifested in the flesh, 
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached 
among the nations, believed on in the world, 
received up in glory." The order preserved 
here shows that Christ is seen as not yet re- 
ceived up in glory. That is yet future and will 
be fulfilled at the Rapture of the Church. 

And the woman, that is, Israel, is still suf- 
fering. It is ever true that salvation is of 
the Jews and it is through the suffering and 
humiliation of Israel that the Man Child is 
coming to perfection. Let us never forget our 
debt to the Jews and let us see to it that so 
far as in us lies, our debt is paid by the faithful 
preaching of the Gospel, which is the power of 
God unto salvation, to the Jew first and also 
to the Greek. 

The great red dragon is still seeking to de- 
vour the Man Child. The true Church of 
God, in the midst of the mass of lukewarm 
profession, is well known to our enemy and 
as cordially hated and cruelly persecuted as 
ever. 

The period of 1,260 days, during which Is- 
rael is nourished in the wilderness, is the form- 
er half of the seven-years period following the 
taking out of the Church. During the remain- 
ing three and a half years the nation will suf- 
fer terrible judgments. 

In verses 7 to 9 of chapter 12 we have a de- 
scription of a war in hsaven between the op- 



THE MAN OF SIN. 



45 



posing armies of Michael and Satan, resulting 
in the Devil and his angels being cast down 
to the Earth. There follows rejoicing in Heav- 
en and a warning of coming woe to the Earth. 
This brings us to the middle of Daniel's "sev- 
entieth week/' when The Great Tribulation 
proper will begin. 

The Man of Sin. 

The Beast-King appears in connection with 
the revived Roman empire in chapter 13, verses 
1 to 10. The picture is identical with that of 
the beasts of Daniel's vision, the Beast-King 
comprising the features of them all. His 
reign as the world's monarch will be the logi- 
cal heading up of Gentile dominion and he will 
reign over all lands by the energy of Satan. 
The world will then throw off its mask and 
openly worship the dragon and the beast. The 
seven heads and ten horns of the dragon are 
seen here, showing that Satan has given all 
his power to the man of sin. The ten horns 
have crowns on them, corresponding with the 
ten toes of Nebuchadnezzar's image. The Beast- 
King thus appears as a Roman prince, ruling 
over the ten-fold form of the revived Roman 
empire. He is seen in our chapter as reign- 
ing over the whole Earth. He is at the height 
of his power, and has forty-two months or 
three and one-half years yet to reign. He now 
breaks his league with Israel and begins those 
relentless persecutions so often foretold in the 



46 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 

Word of God. He blasphemes God and makes 
war with the saints. Universal dominion, 
which was offered to the Lord Jesus and re- 
fused, is given to the false Messiah and all 
that dwell on the Earth shall worship him, save 
only those whose names are written in the 
Lamb's Book of Life. This evil king is the 
"little horn" of Daniel's prophecy. He comes 
up out of the sea of the Gentile world and is 
the prince of a Gentile power, though Daniel 
II ; 37 intimates that he is an apostate Jew. 

The False Prophet. 

Still another beast is seen in the remaining 
paragraph of chapter 13. This is the false 
prophet, taking the place in the Trinity of Evil 
occupied by the Holy Spirit in the Godhead. 
This is the consummation of the Devil's work. 
He is a liar and the father of lies and his 
most subtle form of deception is to imitate the 
things of God. God has His wise virgins, 
Satan has his foolish ones ; outwardly they ap- 
pear alike. God sows good seed, Satan sows 
tares. God plants the true vine, Satan plants 
"the vine of the Earth." God has a bride, Satan 
has a harlot. God has a city, the New Jeru- 
salem ; Satan also has a city, the corrupt Baby- 
lon. God has a Man, the Lord Christ; Satan 
has a man, the Beast-King. God's Man is the 
Son of God; Satan's man is the son of perdi- 
tion. Finally, God is manifested in the form 



THE FALSE PROPHET. 47 



of the Holy Trinity; Satan is manifested in 
the form of the Trinity of Evil. 

The second beast is seen coming up out of 
the Earth, which probably intimates his con- 
nection with Israel, the earthly people. He 
poses as a prophet. He is the Devil's messen- 
ger, coming forth as an angel of light and a 
minister of righteousness. There are two 
horns, like a lamb, in imitation of the Lamb 
of God, but his speech savors of the fires of 
Hell— "he spake like a dragon." He directs 
the worship of the world to the Beast-King. He 
does great miracles, even calling down fire 
from Heaven. Finally he sets up an image of 
the Beast-King in the Holy Place of the Tem- 
ple of God at Jerusalem, causes the image to 
breathe and to speak. This is the Abomination 
of Desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prop- 
het and by our Lord Jesus. All people are 
compelled to worship the image on pain of 
death and to receive the mark of the beast 
upon their hands and foreheads. Those who 
refuse find themselves unable to buy or sell 
anything anywhere. This will be the logical 
heading up of the boycott system. 

The number of the beast, 666, is, of course, 
symbolical, being the number of incomplete- 
ness thrice repeated. It is ever short of the 
perfect seven, showing that however the Beast- 
King may try to show himself forth as God, 
he will fail to deceive at least the very elect. 
It is significant that the numerical equivalent 



48 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



of the name of Jesus is 888, eight being the 
number of resurrection and eternal triumph. 

It may seem a strange thing that the world, 
with all its wisdom and culture, could be so 
deceived by the man of sin, and be led into the 
worship of such a character. But all becomes 
clear when we remember that man by wisdom 
never knew God, and that the seeming triumph 
of Satan is really a judgment upon this unbe- 
lieving and ungodly world from the hand of 
God Himself. It is because men will not have 
the truth that they are turned aside to error. As 
it is written, "For this cause God shall send them 
strong delusion, that they should believe the lie; 
that they all might be judged who believed not 
the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness ,, 
(2 Thess. 2: II, 12, 191 1 Bible). 



u 
ii 



I 



PART III.— SECTION 5. — ENCOURAGE- 
MENT AND WARNING. 



(Chapters 14 and 15.) 



"Fear God and give Him glory; for the hour of 
His judgment is come." (Rev. 14: 7.) 



The opening paragraph of chapter 14 shows 
us the Lamb standing on Mount Zion and 
with Him 144,000 having His name and the 
name of His Father written on their foreheads. 
There seems to be no reasonable doubt that 
this company is the same as the 144,000 sealed 
Israelites seen in chapter 7. They are doubt- 
less the Jewish remnant so often seen in the 
Psalms and Prophecies. There is great joy 
in Heaven manifested by the music heard by 
John, for the time is come for Israel to "blos- 
som and bud and fill the face of the world 
with fruit." (Isa. 27:6.) They are spoken 
of as virgins, as in Matthew 25, for they are 
not guilty of that friendship with the world 
which is enmity toward God and which the 
Scriptures call adultery. They turn to the 
Lord during the time of The Great Tribulation 
and follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. 
The vision of the Lord Jesus on Mount Zion 
in Jerusalem, the place of God's earthly rest 
and the place of grace for Israel, is anticipa- 
tive, and is given just here as showing the 

49 



50 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



sharp contrast between God's King upon His 
holy hill of Zion, and Satan's creation, the 
Abomination of Desolation, in the Temple of 
God, showing himself forth as God. (n.Thess. 
2 : 4.) 

The same contrast is drawn in Isaiah 41 : 21- 
24 and 42: 1-4. In the former paragraph God 
is addressing the gods of idolatry: "Produce 
your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forth your 
strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let 
them bring them forth and declare unto us 
what shall happen : declare ye the former 
things, what they are, that we may consider 
them, and know the latter end of them ; 
or show us things to come. Declare the 
things that are to come hereafter, that we may 
know that ye are gods ; yea, do good, or do 
evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it 
together. Behold, ye are nothing, and your 
work is of naught; an abomination is he that 
chooseth you. ,, 

Now note the contrast in chapter 42: "Be- 
hold, My Servant, Whom I uphold; My 
Chosen, in Whom My soul delighteth. I have 
put My Spirit upon Him ; He will bring forth 
justice to the nations. He will not cry, nor 
lift up His voice, nor cause it to be heard in 
the street. A bruised reed will He not break, 
and a dimly burning wick will He not quench. 
He will bring forth justice in truth. He will 
not fail nor be discouraged till He have set 



ENCOURAGEMENT AND WARNING. 51 



justice in the Earth, and the isles shall wait 
for His law." 

The promise is that "a Redeemer will come 
to Zion, and unto them that turn from trans- 
gression in Jacob." (Isa. 59:20.) "Thus 
saith Jehovah of Hosts, I am jealous for Zion 
with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her 
with great wrath. Thus saith Jehovah, I am 
returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the 
midst of Jerusalem ; and Jerusalem shall be 
called the City of Truth, and the mountain 
of Jehovah of Hosts, the Holy Mountain." 
(Zech. 8:2, 3.) In that day it will be a great 
honor to be called a Jew and to be identified 
with the city of Jerusalem. "Thus saith Je- 
hovah of Hosts : It shall yet come to pass 
that there shall come people, and the inhabi- 
tants of many cities ; and the inhabitants of 
one city shall go to another, saying: Let us 
go speedily to entreat the favor of Jehovah, 
and to seek Jehovah of Hosts: I will go also: 
Yea, many peoples and strong nations shall 
come to seek Jehovah of Hosts in Jerusalem, 
and to entreat the favor of Jehovah. Thus 
saith Jehovah of Hosts: In those days it shall 
come to pass that ten men shall take hold, oui 
of all the languages of the nations, they shall 
take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, 
saying, We will go with you, for we have 
heard that God is with you." (Zech. 8: 20-23.) 

All that, however, must be preceded by ter- 
rible judgments upon Israel and upon all the 



52 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



nations, for this world has yet to answer for 
the murder of the Son of God. These judg- 
ments are depicted in the book of The Revela- 
tion, and we have this anticipative vision of 
the Lamb on Mount Zion to remind us, as 
we are again and again reminded in the book, 

that in wr&th God remembers mercy. 

The Sevenfold Warning. 

Beginning with the sixth verse of chapter 
14 and closing with the eighth verse of the 
fifteenth chapter, there is a sevenfold series of 
warnings for those yet upon the earth after the 
Church is caught out. These final alarms im- 
mediately precede the last series of judgments, 
the seven vials or bowls, containing the seven 
plagues. 

First, there is an angel flying in mid-heaven 
preaching the eternal Gospel unto them that 
dwell on the Earth, and unto every na- 
tion and tribe and tongue and people; and he 
saith with a great voice, "Fear God and give 
Him glory; for the hour of His judgment is 
come; and worship Him that made the Heaven 
and the Earth and sea and fountains of 
waters." This is very different from the Gospel 
we preach to-day. Now, it pleases God by the 
foolishness of preaching to save them that be- 
lieve. And for preachers He chooses the weak 
things and despised. In that day the preacher 
will be an angel flying in mid-heaven. Our 
message is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 



THE SEVENFOLD WARNING. 53 



and thou shalt be saved." The angel's mes- 
sage is, "Fear God for the hour of His judg- 
ment is come." Men are fond of saying that 
they have not sufficient evidence of the truth 
of our Gospel ; in that day they will not be 
able so to reply to the flying angel. But they 
will not believe then, any more than now. 
The fact is that the world hates God and the 
Word of God, and men did not believe, even 
when One rose from the dead. 

The second angel brings warning of the 
fall of Babylon, that great ungodly system in 
which men seek refuge rather than turn to 
God. "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great, 
that hath made all the nations to drink of the 
wine of the wrath of her fornication." The 
collapse of Babylon is not actually seen here, 
but simply announced beforehand, that men 
may not say they were not warned in time to 
separate from her. It is prophetic, like the 
words of Jesus, when He said, "I beheld 
Satan as lightning fall from Heaven," a proph- 
ecy which still awaits fulfillment. 

The third warning also comes from an angel, 
following the others ; that is, flying in mid- 
heaven, and saying with a great voice, "If any 
man worshippeth the beast and his image, and 
receiveth a mark on his forehead or upon his 
hand, he also shall drink of the wine of the 
wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in 
the cup of His anger; and he shall be tor- 
mented with fire and brimstone in the presence 



54 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



of the holy angels, and in the presence of the 
Lamb ; and the smoke of their torment goeth 
up for ever and ever; and they have no rest 
day and night, they that worship the beast 
and his image, and whoso receiveth the mark 
of his name. Here is the patience of the saints, 
they that keep the commandments of God, 
and the faith of Jesus." 

What a terrible alternative will be presented 
to men during those dreadful days ! They 
must choose between worshipping the Devil 
and the Beast-King on the one hand, and wor- 
shipping God and His Christ on the other. 
If they give their allegiance to the only true 
God they must lay down their lives for the 
testimony of Jesus ; if they bow to the man of 
sin there is the wine of the wrath of God, 
which is prepared unmixed in the cup of His 
anger! Very likely these people are living 
all about us to-day. Asleep are they and will 
not be aroused; they are blind and in love 
with darkness. O, that God may breathe His 
own mighty power into the message as we 
cry into their ears — Fly for your lives ! The 
end of all things is at hand ! God's hour has 
struck and the Judge is at the door! Flee 
from the coming wrath ! If they ask, Whith- 
er shall we go? Whither, indeed, but unto 
Him who bore the wrath of God for us? Jesus 
invites us, and He alone can save. We need 
not fear to trust Him for He is the Mighty 
God and He is able. 



THE SEVENFOLD WARNING. 55 



The fourth warning is given in the audible 
words of the Holy Spirit of God, speaking from 
Heaven, and commanding His servant John, 
to write, "Blessed are the dead who die in the 
Lord from henceforth : yea, saith the Spirit, 
that they may rest from their labors ; for their 
works follow with them/' This warning is 
given for the benefit of the witnesses in that 
day who may be tempted to compromise with 
evil in order to preserve their lives. It is al- 
ways true that those who die in the Lord are 
blessed; but this Scripture is for the 
Lord's suffering ones in the awful scenes of 
The Great Tribulation. Blessed, indeed, shall 
be those who count not their lives dear to 
them, but lay them down for the love of the 
truth. Of these it is written later (ch. 20:4- 
6.) "They lived and reigned with Christ a 
thousand years. The rest of the dead lived 
not again until the thousand years should be 
finished. This is the first resurrection. Bless- 
ed and holy is he that hath part in the first 
resurrection." 

Now this series of seven warnings, like all 
the sevenfold groups in our book, is divided 
into two parts, quite perceptibly. As usual, the 
first group contains four warnings and the sec- 
ond one consists of three. Four is the world 
or Earth number and three the heavenly, 
the Trinity number. The first four of these 
warnings come in the form of words — the 
words of God addressed to men. They seem 



56 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. . 

I* 

more natural, so to speak, than the final three. 
Men will explain them away as due to perfect- 
ly natural causes, as when God spoke out of 
Heaven in the days of Jesus' earthly ministry 
men said it was thunder, a perfectly natural 
thing. The last three of the warnings are 
very different. Men shall not be able to ex- 
plain them and leave God out. They are plain- 
ly supernatural and the hand of God is clearly 
seen in them. 

The fifth warning is the reaping of the har- 
vest of the Earth by the sharp sickle of the 
Son of Man, Who maketh the cloud His char- 
iot. It is the harvest at the end of the Age, to 
which Jesus referred in the parable of the 
wheat and the tares in the thirteenth chapter 
of Matthew. "In the time of the harvest," 
said He, "I will say to the reapers, gather 
up first the tares, and bind them in bundles 
to burn them ; but gather the wheat into my 
barn. * * * * * The harvest is the end of the 
Age, and the reapers are angels. As therefore 
the tares are gathered up and burned with fire ; 
so shall it be in the end of the Age. The Son 
of Man shall send forth His angels, and they 
shall gather out of His Kingdom all things that 
cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, 
and shall cast them into the furnace of fire ; 
there shall be the weeping and gnashing of 
teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth 
as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He 
that hath ears, let him hear." 



THE SEVENFOLD WARNING. 57 



This makes our study perfectly clear. The 
angels are seen in chapter 14 of The Revela- 
tion gathering out the tares and binding them 
in bundles for burning; the wheat we shall 
see, gathered into the barn, in chapter 15. 

The sixth warning is the vintage of the Earth 
reaped with the sharp sickle of another angel. 
The vine of the Earth is Israel, planted and 
faithfully tended by the Lord, Who looked for 
grapes, but found only wild grapes. It was 
the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts at the be- 
ginning, even His pleasant plant ; but he look- 
ed for justice, and, behold, oppression ; for 
righteousness, and, behold, a cry. (Isa. 5.) 
"I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness, ,, 
saith Jehovah in Hosea 9: 10, but after all His 
care He had to say, "Israel is an empty vine, 
he bringeth forth fruit unto himself." (Hos. 
10: 1.) When the Lord sent for His fruit, His 
messengers were beaten and stoned and killed. 
Then he sent His Son and they took him and 
cast Him forth, out of the vineyard and killed 
Him. (Matt. 21 : 33-46.) Thus Israel became 
the vine of the Earth and Jesus Himself, after 
being cast out of the vineyard, was planted by 
His Father the Husbandman as the true Vine. 
(John 15.) 

As for the coming judgment, God has said, 
"They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of 
Israel as a vine." (Jer. 6:9.) We have here 
a picture of the last great war of the nations 
against Israel and Jerusalem described in Joel 



58 SIMPLE STUDIES. IN THE REVELATION. 



3 : "Proclaim ye this among the nations ; pre- 
pare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the 
men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat 
your plowshares into swords and your prun- 
ing hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am 
strong. Haste ye, and come, all ye nations 
round about, and gather yourselves together: 
thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, 
. O Jehovah. Let the nations bestir themselves, 
and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; 
for there will I sit to judge all the nations 
round about. Put ye in the sickle for the vin- 
tage is ripe : come, tread ye ; for the winepress 
is full, the vats overflow ; for their wickedness 
is great." 

This will be Jerusalem's last baptism of 
blood. "Jehovah shall roar from Zion and 
utter His voice from Jerusalem ; and the Heav- 
ens and the Earth shall shake: but Jehovah 
shall be a refuge unto His people, and a strong- 
hold to the children of Israel. So shall ye 
know that I am Jehovah your God, dwelling 
in Zion My holy mountain : then shall Jeru- 
salem be holy, and there shall no strangers 
pass through her any more." (See also Zech. 

14.) 

Sixteen hundred furlongs, or two hundred 
miles, is the distance from Dan to Beersheba, 
that is, the length of Palestine. The whole 
land is pictured as submerged in a sea of blood 
from the winepress of the wrath of God trod- 
den without the city. There would be no need 



THE SEVENFOLD WARNING. 59 



for such a judgment if men would but have 
taken refuge under the blood of Jesus. They 
hated Him, and killed Him, and there is noth- 
ing for them but that He shall tread down the 
peoples in His anger and make them drunk in 
his wrath and pour out their life-blood upon 
the earth. (Isa. 63.) 

The seventh warning is set aside for a mo- 
ment by a parenthetical paragraph in chapter 
15, in which we are given a glimpse of the 
wheat in the Lord's granary. I doubt not that 
this is the identical company seen in chapter 
7, the great multitude which no man could 
number, they that come out of The Great Trib- 
ulation, from every nation and tribe and peo- 
ple and tongue. They sing the song of Moses 
and the Lamb, a sevenfold psalm of holy joy 
and praise. 

Then comes the seventh warning in the 
elaborate preparations for the seven last 
plagues, the bowl judgments. There it stands, 
the written word, throughout the centuries, 
and the world rushes heedlessly on, pausing 
only to curl the lip and hurl the sneer at the 
poor little company of expectant ones, the 
"stargazers," who are seeking feebly to warn 
the crowd and stem the awful tide. "Where 
is the promise of His coming?" is the jeering 
question heard on every hand. 

May God help us to be faithful and cry 
aloud, whether they hear or forbear. Let our 
loins be girt about and our lamps burning and 



6o SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



we ourselves like unto men who wait for 
their Lord to return. His last word to us was 
"Behold, I come quickly." Amen, even so, 
come, Lord Jesus ! 



PART III.— SECTION 6.— THE SEVEN 
LAST PLAGUES. 



(Chapter 16.) 



"Now therefore be ye not scoffers, lest your bonds 
be made strong; for a decree of destruction have I 
heard from the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, upon the 
whole Earth." (Isa. 28:22.) 

Seven is the numerical key to the book of 
The Revelation. Seven is the complete num- 
ber and the whole book is made up of seven- 
fold, that iS| complete, narratives of different 
phases of the coming judgments. Each series 
of seven is complete in itself, telling the story 
from its own point of view. We shall utterly 
miss the drift of the book if we fail to see this 
uniform law of structure pervading it through- 
out. 

Again, the seven is always divided into four 
and three, the Earth number and the Trinity 
number, for perfectly obvious reasons. In the 
fourfold group God is seen but indirectly, as 
He works upon or through nature, and not di- 
rectly upon men. In the threefold group God 
comes out into the open and works directly, in 
such a way as to compel men to see that God 
is and that He cannot be explained away. 

Stil! further, the sevens will always be found 

divided into sixes and ones, a parenthetical 

61 



62 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



passage being placed between the sixth and 
seventh point in the series. Six is the number 
of incompleteness and one is the unity number, 
setting forth the oneness of the Godhead. God, 
before completing the series in each case, 
pauses to remind men that He will not forget 
mercy and He will not make a full end. It is 
thus He spoke to Israel in Malachi 3:6: "I 
am Jehovah, I change not; therefore ye sons 
of Jacob are not consumed/' 

Now all this is seen in the sixteenth chapter. 
Just as was the case in the seven seal judg- 
ments and the seven trumpet judgments, so 
also in the seven vial or bowl judgments, we 
are brought right down to the end of the 
period of The Great Tribulation, and in the 
later chapters we shall find unfolded in detail 
what is here given in summarized and con- 
densed form. It may also be noticed that in 
the first four of these last plagues God deals 
with the things of nature and through them 
deals indirectly with men, while in the last 
three plagues His hand is made bare as He 
lays it heavily and directly upon rebellious 
men themselves. The parenthesis is also seen 
between the sixth and seventh judgments, as 
before. 

There is every indication that the world is 
just now on the eve of the great crisis of the 
end-time of this Dispensation. The seven let- 
ters to the Asiatic churches in chapters 2 and 
3 of our book show that the churches are fin- 



THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES. 63 



ishing their earthly career and our expectant 
Lord is about to come for His waiting peo- 
ple. After that, all these dreadful and direful 
judgments will burst upon the Earth and God 
will reckon with men for their rejection of the 
Christ. This world must answer for the mur- 
der of the Son of God. Our business in this 
little while is to be serving the living and true 
God and waiting for His Son from Heaven. 

"Even so, Lord Jesus, come; 
Hope of all our hopes the sum, 
Take Thy waiting people home." 

According to Daniel's prophecy, it will be 
remembered, a period of seven years is yet 
needed to complete the Jewish Age in which 
Daniel lived and prophesied. The Church, 
like Peter's sheet, has been let down from 
Heaven and must be taken up again into Heav- 
en before the seven-years period will begin. 
Immediately after the Rapture or catching-up 
of the Church, the Beast-King, the last great 
Gentile ruler, will make his appearance at the 
head of the nations. Israel also will bow 
down to him and he will make an alliance with 
the Jews for the seven years. He will keep 
his part of the compact for three and a half 
years and at the end of that time he will 
break his league, stopping the Judaic worship 
in the restored Temple at Jerusalem and sub- 
stituting the grossest idolatry. Then will 
begin The Great Tribulation proper, the Day 



64 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 

of Wrath, the time of Jacob's trouble. Is- 
rael shall suffer awful persecutions at the 
hands of the proud king, and finally all men 
everywhere will be compelled on pain of death 
to worship the king and receive the mark, 666, 
the number of his name, branded upon their 
foreheads or hands. Those who refuse will be 
boycotted everywhere, and unable to hold 
commerce with their fellow-men ; no man shall 
be able to buy or to sell, save he that hath the 
mark, even the name of the beast or the num- 
ber of his name. On the other hand, those 
who yield allegiance to the great king and 
allow themselves to be branded with his mark, 
shall suffer eternal torment, drinking of the 
wine of the wrath of God, prepared unmixed 
in the cup of His anger. 

The point of beginning in the seven last 
plagues is plainly indicated in chapter 16. The 
first bowl of the wrath of God is poured out 
and a noisome and grievous sore appears upon 
the men that have the mark of the beast and 
that have worshipped his image. This fixes 
the time of the beginning of these plagues at 
a point subsequent to the middle of the seven- 
years period. The seven last plagues, there- 
fore, are all confined to the time of The Great 
Tribulation itself. 

The sea is affected by the second plague, 
its waters turning into blood like the blood 
of a dead man, and every living thing in the 
sea dies. 



THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES. 65 



The rivers and springs are next in order and 
the third plague turns all their waters into 
blood. The angel of the waters is heard justi- 
fying this awful catastrophe as a righteous 
act of God in judgment upon the world which 
has poured out the life-blood of saints and 
prophets ; it is now meet that the blood-shed- 
ders should have blood to drink. The altar of 
the Temple is also heard speaking out, saying, 
"Yea, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and 
righteous are Thy judgments." In this our 
Day of Grace the altar is speaking out better 
things than the blood of Abel ; but we are 
studying of the Day of Judgment, when the 
doors of grace shall have been shut, and in 
that Day the only judgment for men will be 
righteous judgment; and who shall be able to 
stand? 

The sun is next touched by the hand of God 
and it scorches men with fire. That great orb 
of day which has been for the many centuries 
the source of all good for physical man — light, 
life and health — will become an unbearable 
plague, killing men with its intense heat. Just 
so will the Son of God, the Light of the World, 
the Life of His people, and the Sun of Right- 
eousness, become in that day a destroying, 
blazing flame, bringing awful vengeance to 
those who refuse to honor His Father. "For 
our God is a consuming fire." 

What will be the effect of all this upon the 
hearts of men? It will only harden them more 



66 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



and more. As the Word goes on to say, "they 
blasphemed the name of God, who hath the 
power over these plagues; and they repented 
not, to give Him glory." The Word of God 
is as a fire and as a hammer that breaketh the 
rock in pieces. If hearts resist the mighty 
power of the Gospel of Christ, so will they re- 
sist the terrible visitations of judgment. "The 
heart is deceitful above all things and desper- 
ately wicked." 

Four plagues have been described and all 
of them are what men would try to explain 
away as natural phenomena, due to natural 
causes. Just so do men to-day seek to account 
for the acts of God in His world upon purely 
natural grounds, as if such an explanation dis- 
posed of God. Is not God in nature? Is He 
the God of the supernatural only? Is He not 
also the God of the natural? We have not yet 
learned to know God if we suppose that any- 
thing, either natural or supernatural, can hap- 
pen without Him. 

Well, He will not always be so easily ex- 
plained away and men will not always be able 
to reckon without Him. In the final three of 
the plagues the phenomena will be of such a 
character as to compel men to acknowledge 
the workings of the Almighty One, even as the 
magicians of Egypt reached a limit beyond 
"which they could not go and at which they had 
to say, "This is the finger of God." 

The fifth plague affects the Beast-King's 



THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES. 67 



throne and his Kingdom becomes darkened 
and his subjects gnaw their tongues for pain. 
They are now face to face with the great fact 
that they have the living God to deal with. 
What is the result? Just this: "They blas- 
phemed the God of Heaven because of their 
pains and their sores; and they repented not 
of their works." 

The sixth judgment dries up the bed of the 
great river Euphrates that the way might be 
made ready for the kings that come from the 
sunrising. What is this for? We shall see 
directly. Evil spirits now go forth from the 
dragon, the beast and the false prophet, spir- 
its of demons working signs, or miracles ; 
which go forth unto, or upon, the kings of the 
whole world, to gather them together unto the 
war of the Great Day of God Almighty. 

Just here our parenthesis comes in, and 
very sweet and precious it is. Jesus speaks, in- 
terrupting the narrative just long enough to 
say, "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is 
he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, 
lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." 
It is just like our precious Lord to give this 
timely word of encouragement and admoni- 
tion to His faithful remnant who shall be long- 
ing for His glorious appearing in that dark 
hour. 

The sixteenth verse follows the parenthesis 
and informs us of the work of the ev>l spirits. 
It is to gather the kings of the Earth tc 



68 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



Har-Magedon for the great battle against 
the Lord and His people. The battle is not 
seen here; it is only that the kings are as- 
sembling to get ready for the battle. Now 
we understand why Euphrates was dried up : 
that made possible this gathering of the kings 
of the East with those of the rest of the world, 
with their armies, for the last great struggle in 
rebellion against the Lord and His Christ. The 
battle itself is described later on. 

The seventh angel pours out his bowl upon 
the air; and there comes forth a great voice 
out of the Temple, from the throne, saying, 
"It is done/' The wrath of God is finished in 
the seventh plague. This brings us again to 
the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven, just on 
the eve of His glorious appearing with His 
saints to execute judgment upon all. The last 
plague is accompanied by lightnings and voices 
and thunders ; and also by "a great earthquake, 
such as was not since there were men upon the 
earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty." The 
fall of Babylon is again mentioned as occur- 
ring in connection with the last plague; the 
full description of her fall is given in the next 
two chapters. "And every island fled away 
and the mountains were not found." Finally, 
"a great hail, every stone about the weight of 
£ talent, cometh down out of Heaven upon 
men." A talent is about a hundred pounds. 
The law of God to Israel provided that blas- 
phemers should be stoned to death. This law 



THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES. 69 



will be executed in the last plague by the de- 
scent of these enormous hail-stones out of 
Heaven. The result of this judgment is that 
men go on blaspheming God, because of the 
plague of the hail; for the plague theieof is 
exceeding great. Thus it appears that these 
judgments are not remedial, but punitive, in 
their purpose and effect. 

And this is the goal towards which this 
world is hastening on ! The fool is saying in 
his heart, "There is no God;" and he goes on 
saying it until he makes himself believe it. 
The world is rushing pell-mell into the whirl- 
ing vortex of the awful wrath of God, and to 
the feeble voice of warning the reply comes, 
"Let us alone; we are too busy to think of 
such things." The old indictment still stands 
— they will not have God in their knowledge. 
But our God is faithful and He has never left 
Himself without a witness. Beginning with 
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, the prophets 
have been crying out, "Behold, the Lord com- 
eth with myriads of His holy ones, to execute 
judgment upon all, and to convict all the un- 
godly of all their works of ungodliness which 
they have ungodly wrought, and of all the 
hard things which ungodly sinners have spok- 
en against Him." 

Do not be deceived. Do not be looking foi 
a converted world. This world is under the 
sentence of God's judgment, and it is hurry- 
ing on to the slaughter. Nothing can be done 



70 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



for the world, but we may help to rescue some 
poor sinners out of the world, ere the storm 
shall burst, "remembering the words which 
have been spoken before by the apostles of our 
Lord Jesus Christ: that they said unto us, 
'In the last time there shall be mockers, walk- 
ing after their own ungodly lusts/ These are 
they who make separations, sensual, having 
not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, building up 
yourselves on your most holy faith, praying 
in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love 
of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord 
Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some 
have mercy, who are in doubt ; and some save, 
snatching them out of the fire; and on some 
have mercy with fear; hating even the garment 
spotted by the flesh." 



PART III.— SECTION 7. — BABYLON THE 

GREAT. 



(Chapters 17 and 18.) 



'True and righteous are His judgments; for He 
hath judged the great harlot." (Rev. 19:2.) 

The fall of the great Babylon has been an- 
nounced twice in The Revelation before we 
come to the detailed account of it in chapters 
17 and 18. This is the Spirit's method all 
through the book, as has been shown in our 
previous studies. Babylon appears in these 
chapters in two figures ; first, as a woman, and 
then as a city. This is to show, first, Baby- 
lon's character, and then the results of her 
crimes. The same rule obtains in the succeed- 
ing chapters, where another woman and city 
are seen in a double figure. Great contrast, 
however, is observed between the two women 
and between the two cities. Babylon is shown 
as a filthy and dissolute harlot and a wicked 
and doomed city; the new Jerusalem is a spot- 
less and faithful bride and a holy and glorified 
city. John is taken into the wilderness to see 
the judgment of the great harlot, while the 
bride of the Lamb is seen coming from Heav- 
en. Both are mysteries, however, and both are 
seen by the seer of Patmos only while he is in 
the Spirit. So if we are to discern these things 

7i 



72 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



we must see to it that we are "in the Spirit." 

The New Jerusalem is a figure of the true 
Church of God, the Lamb's bride. The great 
Babylon is a type of the false Church. This 
false Church is left in the world after the true 
Church is caught up to meet the Lord in the 
air, and here we see the harlot in all her shame. 
She is seated upon the beast with the seven 
heads and ten horns, which is easily recog- 
nized as the Beast- King of the first part of the 
13th chapter. It is the revived Roman empire 
with the Beast-King on the throne, but he him- 
self ruled and controlled by the professing 
Church. This, of course, is early in the seven- 
years period following the Rapture and before 
the Beast-King tears off his mask. He for the 
time being is subject to the woman. His seven 
heads and ten horns, therefore, are without 
crowns in this picture. 

The woman is arrayed in costly apparel, but 
she is drunk with the blood of the saints and 
martyrs of Jesus. Posing as the "mystery hid 
in God," and holding in her hand the golden 
cup, she sets herself forth as the faithful spouse 
of the heavenly Bridegroom ; but her cup is 
not the cup of blessing, for it is full of abom- 
inations and uncleannesses. Abominations are 
a Bible type of idolatries, and this professing 
Church is idolatrous and abominable, in spite 
of her fair outward appearance. 

In this woman seated upon the beast there 
are combined the two principles of Balaam 



BABYLON THE GREAT. 



73 



and Jezebel. Balaam led the Lord's people 
into unholy alliance and criminal intercourse 
with the world, and Jezebel forced the Lord's 
people into gross idolatry ; and both acted un- 
der the cover of religion. Nothing in the wide 
world is so hateful to God as religion when 
used as a cover for corruption. 

In the angel's explanation to John we find 
that the seven heads stand not only for seven 
kings, but also for seven mountains on which 
the woman sitteth. Then in verse 18 we see 
that the woman is the great city which reign- 
eth over the kings of the earth. This cannot 
mean the literal ancient Babylon, for that city 
was built not upon mountains, but on the plain 
of Shinar, and it had, long before John's day, 
ceased to reign over the kings of the Earth. 
The city which wielded universal sovereignty 
in John's time was Rome, and everybody 
knows that Rome was built upon seven hills. 

Why is the city called Babylon? For the 
same reason that old Jerusalem is called 
Sodom and Gomorrah in the earlier part of 
this book. Jerusalem had become so corrupt 
and blinded with sin that when her Lord came 
to her, she nailed Him to the cross. So Rome 
in its last state is to partake of the spirit of 
Babylon. Beginning with Nimrod's city and 
the tower of the Babel builders, Babylon al- 
ways stood for opposition to God and His peo- 
ple. Babylon began with man exalting him- 
self as an individual in Genesis 10, and with 



74 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION 



men combining for mutual glory in Genesis n. 
Its logical figure-head is seen in Nebuchad- 
nezzar, walking in his royal palace and say- 
ing, "Is not this great Babylon, which I have 
built for the royal dwelling place, by the might 
of my power and for the glory of my majesty?" 

Now, this Nebuchadnezzar was a religious 
man. We must not think that because he did 
not know the true God, therefore he had no 
religion. On the contrary, all his acts w r ere 
done in the name of religion. But his religion 
was that of the natural man and was opposed 
to that religion which is pure and undefiled 
before our God and Father. His religion was 
to exalt himself and to count God out. The 
image he set up on the plain of Dura was an 
image of himself, all of gold. God had made 
known His purpose, and that purpose was that 
Babylon should constitute but one of four 
great Gentile world-powers. It did not suit 
Nebuchadnezzar that he should be the head 
of gold merely — he proposed to be the whole 
thing; so he set up his image in defiance of 
the eternal purpose of God. God had said 
Babylon should die and pass away; man said 
Babylon should never die. The issue was 
thus joined. Now note the result : In due 
time Nebuchadnezzar passed from the scene, 
and one night Belshazzar, his grandson, had 
a great feast with a thousand of his lords. He 
became drunker than usual and defiled the ves- 
sels of the Temple of God, which had been 



BABYLON THE GREAT. 75 



taken from Jerusalem. In the same hour 
Babylon's doom was written upon the wall and 
in that same night Belshazzar was slain and 
Darius the Mede received the kingdom. 

Thus will it be with the mystical Babylon. 
She has a great deal of religion, and claims to 
be the sole fountain of divine authority in the 
earth. The Lord's purpose for His Church is 
that she should live as a stranger and pilgrim 
in the earth during the days of His rejection. 
But she has settled down upon the Earth and 
forgotten her Lord. Outwardly she is gor- 
geously arrayed and men look upon her and 
say, Surely, this is the bride of Christ. Nay, 
she is full of rottenness, despite her fair ap- 
pearance. God called her to a place of suffer- 
ing and sorrow, but she has chosen the path 
of ease and luxury. God's plan for her was 
that she should hate even the garment spotted 
by the flesh, but she has played the wanton and 
brought disgrace upon His name. God's de- 
sire for her was that she should be separated 
from the world, but she has joined herself to 
the world, which lieth in the Wicked One. 
World-hatred and persecution were marked 
out for her, but she thought she knew a better 
way. The way of the cross is a lonely way and 
she greatly preferred the way of worldly tri- 
umph. 

The Prince and God of this World once of- 
fered to the Son of God all the Kingdoms of 
the world for a moment of worship. The Christ 



76 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



put the devilish suggestion from Him with 
loathing. Yet here we see His professed bride 
actually seated on the beast, ruling the King- 
doms of the world, having ascended the de- 
filed throne once spurned by the Lord Jesus. 

Babylon is worldwide in its extent. The 
waters which John saw where the harlot sit- 
teth, "are peoples, and multitudes, and na- 
tions, and tongues. " The center of the system, 
however, is the seven-hilled city, and thus the 
so-called Roman Catholic Church is identified 
as the thing signified by the miserable woman 
sitting in the seat of temporal power. No one 
will deny that this has ever been and now is 
the aim of the papacy. The picture is perfect 
and no detail is missing. Surely, she is ar- 
rayed in purple and scarlet and decked with 
gold, precious stones and pearls. Idol-wor- 
ship is a part of her system, and alliance with 
the world is her great desire. Claiming to be 
the sole representative of Christ on Earth, she 
has guilty relations with His enemies. Drunk- 
en, indeed, is she, with the blood of the saints 
and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, for 
she is guilty of the murder of many millions 
of them — and all this in the name of religion ! 

But the spirit of Babylon is by no means 
confined to the Roman Church. Wherever 
there is fellowship with the world on the part 
of the professed followers of God, there is 
Babylon. The woman on the beast, mark you, 
is not only a harlot herself, but she is the 



BABYLON THE GREAT. 



77 



"mother of harlots and of the abominations of 
the Earth." She has many daughters, and Bab- 
ylon includes every religious institution, 
whether Catholic so-called or Protestant so- 
called, which seeks to mix godliness with 
worldliness. This world is under the sentence 
of God's wrath and is hastening to its execu- 
tion, and wherever there is among God's peo- 
ple, either a guilty subjection to the world, or a 
guilty supremacy over the world, there is 
Babylon, and God hates Babylon, wherever 
found. Our Lord does not will it that His 
bride should be either the world's slave or its 
mistress. The word Babylon means ''confu- 
sion," and God is not the God of confusion. 
He would have the line of demarcation drawn 
deep between His friends and His enemies. 
He calls us to separation, and mixture of the 
clean with the unclean can only result in un- 
cleanness all through — "the whole lump leav- 
ened." 

An almost universal mark of Babylon is 
seen in our day among the so-called Christian 
churches in the constant appeal to unbelievers 
for money "for the support of the Lord's 
work." It is a sight to make angels weep and 
demons laugh when the bride of Christ is seen 
by the roadside with arms outstretched, seek- 
ing alms from her Lord's enemies. What a 
grievous thing it must be in His eyes to behold 
His betrothed wife posing as a beggar before 
an ungodly world ! Mark this well : Wherever 



78 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



the world's support is resorted to or accepted 
in connection with the name and work of the 
Lord, there is Babylon. 

The principle of Babylon is apparent every- 
where, the mystery of iniquity already work- 
ing. There is a great lust even among the 
Lord's people for worldly position and power. 
We want people to be converted and brought 
out of the world into the Church, especially 
"our Church'' — but we want them to bring 
their worldly influence and power along with 
them. This is the Babylonish garment and 
wedge of gold, which has ever been a snare to 
the people of God, marring their fellowship and 
spoiling their testimony. 

But there is to be an enormous development 
of the mystical Babylon after the real Church 
of Christ has been caught away. The restrain- 
ing power of the Holy Spirit will then be re- 
moved and there will be no hindrance to the 
workings of the Evil One. There will still be 
a so-called "Christian Church" in the world, 
having elaborate formalities and alluring rit- 
ualism — the form of godliness without its 
power. There will be much eloquent preach- 
ing and entrancing music, and the harlot will 
be arrayed in purple and scarlet and decked 
with gold and precious stones and pearls. 
There will then be perfect union of Church and 
State, with the so-called Church on top — the 
woman sitting on the beast. The growth of 
this false Church will be amazing and every- 



BABYLON THE GREAT. 79 



body will rush to join its membership, includ- 
ing possibly even those who are turning to 
God under the judgments of seals, trumpets 
and bowls. Then shall the voice be heard out 
of Heaven, saying "Come, forth, My people, 
out of her, that ye have no fellowship with 
her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues : 
for her sins have reached unto Heaven, and 
God hath remembered her iniquities. " This 
command, I say, is for that future time when 
the Church of God shall have been taken to 
Heaven and this false pretending Church is 
in the world. As for the present day, we are 
to shun Babylon wherever we find her, and 
hate even now the polluting and withering 
blight of contact with her. We may not sep- 
arate from the sphere of profession — we can- 
not do that without openly denying our Lord 
— but we may and we ought to keep ourselves 
from idols. It is not for us to spue the Church 
out before the Lord does, but we surely must 
keep ourselves unspotted from the world. 
May God help us to know His will and do it ! 

The disgraceful collapse of the ancient Baby - 
lon of the Chaldees was a faint foreshadowing 
of the miserable end of the mystical Babylon 
the Great. After the confederated kings under 
the Beast-King have made war against the Lamb 
and suffered defeat, they turn against the 
woman and utterly destroy her. The eigh- 
teenth chapter is almost entirely occupied with 
the mourning of the world over the great and 



8o SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



terrible fall of the ungodly system which for 
all the centuries has taken the place in men's 
hearts and thoughts that rightly belongs to 
God alone. The kings of the Earth, the mer- 
chants of the Earth and the shipmasters and 
sailors and traders by sea, all unite in the gen- 
eral weeping and wailing. 

A long list of articles of merchandise is given 
as characterizing the great city. Twenty-eight 
separate things are enumerated, arranged in 
seven classes. There are, first, costly orna- 
ments of gold, silver and precious stones and 
pearls; second, costly raiment of fine linen and 
purple and silk and scarlet; third, costly fur- 
niture, all thyine wood, and every vessel of 
ivory, and every vessel made of most precious 
wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble ; 
fourth, costly perfumes, cinnamon and odours 
and ointments and frankincense ; fifth, costly 
food, wine and oil, fine flour, wheat, beasts 
and sheep; sixth, costly equipages, horses and 
chariots; and finally, the seventh class, men's 
bodies and souls — "slaves and souls of men." 

Babylon evidently lived in luxury if we may 
judge from this glimpse into her store-house. 
The list begins with gold, and ends with the 
souls of men. Gold is the chief object of man's 
desire, while human souls are the least valued 
thing, even in the estimate of nominal Chris- 
tianity. 

Her end is according to her works, for with 
her sorcery were all the nations deceived, "and 



BABYLON THE GREAT. 81 



in her was found the blood of prophets and of 
saints, and of all that have been slain upon 
the Earth." May God hasten the day when all 
these things shall come to pass ! 



PART III. — SECTION 8.— THE TWO 
GREAT SUPPERS. 



(Chapter 19.) 



"And He hath on His garment and on His thigh 
a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords." 
(Rev. 19: 16.) 

The nineteenth chapter opens with a grand 
hallelujah chorus in which are heard the joy- 
ous acclamations of the heavenly hosts. The 
cause of the outburst is the destruction of the 
great false Church, seen in the seventeenth 
and eighteenth chapters as the miserable har- 
lot sitting in the place of temporal power, and 
as the great city reigning over the kings of the 
Earth. 

"After these things," John tells us, "I heard 
as it were a great voice of a great multitude 
in Heaven, saying, 'Hallelujah ! Salvation and 
glory and power belong to our God: for true 
and righteous are His judgments ; for He hath 
judged the great harlot, her that corrupted the 
Earth with her fornication, and He hath aveng- 
ed the blood of His servants at her hand.' 
And a second time they say, 'Hallelujah !' " 

There are those who object to this word, 
Hallelujah, nowadays, for it offends their sense 
of propriety and seemliness; but if they ever 

get into Heaven they will hear a great deal 

82 



THE TWO GREAT SUPPERS. 83 



of it and it behooves them to get used to it 
here, so it will not shock them when they get 
there. It is a beautiful word, transliterated 
from the Hebrew, meaning "Praise ye Jeho- 
vah/' and that is Heaven's keynote for time 
and for eternity. 

"And her smoke goeth up for ever and 
ever." What a solemn word is this ! But a 
moment ago the professing Church was en- 
joying her guilty triumph, saying in her heart, 
"I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall in 
no wise see mourning/* Therefore, according 
to the eternal Word, in one day have her 
plagues come, death and mourning and famine, 
and she was utterly burned with fire, for 
strong is the Lord God who judged her. 
(Ch. 18: 7, 8.) And now we see her smoke — ■ 
the smoke of her torment — going up for ever 
and ever. Another heavenly word comes forth 
in the adoring worship of the four-and-twenty 
elders and the four living creatures : It is 
"Amen," together with the "Hallelujah !" So 
be it ; praise ye the Lord ! This is their re- 
sponse to the acts of God in judgment upon 
the revolting thing which called itself Chris- 
tian while living in guilty intercourse with the 
anti-Christian world and the Beast-King himself. 

A voice from the throne— that is, the King's 
voice — is now heard, saying, "Give praise to 
our God, all ye His servants, ye that fear 
Him, the small and the great." Evidently 
the foregoing praises, however great, had 



84 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



come from but certain selected companies of 
the Lord's servants ; but immediately, at the 
command of the great King on His heavenly 
throne, we hear the transporting strains, in 
which all His servants join, the small and the 
great — "the voice of a great multitude, and as 
the voice of many waters, and as the voice of 
mighty thunders, saying, 'Hallelujah ! For 
the Lord, our God, the Almighty, reigneth.' " 

That will be a glad day for the Lord's ser- 
vants. We could not sing such a song to-day, 
for though the Lord, our God, even now is the 
Almighty One, and though the God of this 
World, our arch enemy and adversary, is re- 
strained by the hand of our God ; yet it is still 
true that the whole world lieth in the Wicked 
One, and we are still called upon to wrestle, 
not against flesh and blood indeed, but against 
principalities and powers, against the world- 
rulers of this darkness, against the hosts of 
wicked spirits in the heavenlies. It will be 
different in that day, for the Lord our God, 
the Almighty, will make bare His arm and take 
to Himself His great power and reign. The 
long suffering of God is the great mystery of 
this present time, but His might and majesty 
will not always be concealed from view. For 
the present: 

"Careless seems the great Avenger. 
History's pages but record 
One death-grapple in the darkness 
'Twixt old systems and the Word: 



THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OP THE LAMB. 83 



Truth for ever on the scaffold; 
Wrong for ever on the throne — 
But that scaffold sways the future, 
And, beyond the dim unknown, 
Standeth God, within the shadows, 
Keeping watch above His own." 

But the mighty song of the heavenly choir 
has a forward aspect as well as a backward. 
There is joy not only over the final overthrow 
and destruction of the false Church, but also 
because of the glorious manifestation of the 
true Church : "Let us rejoice and be exceed- 
ing glad, and let us give glory unto Him : for 
the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His 
wife hath made herself ready." Blessed be 
God ! He will not forget His promise to His 
children. He will exalt them in due time. 

From this point we see no more of the four- 
and-twenty elders, representing the Church of 
God, for the Church is now given its true 
place as the wife of the Lamb. The Judgment 
of Believers' Works before the bema or judg- 
ment seat of Christ has taken place, for here 
the Church is seen arrayed in fine linen, bright 
and pure, the fine linen symbolizing the right- 
eous acts of the saints. 

There are guests at the marriage supper of 
the Lamb and John is specially commanded to 
write of them, "Blessed are they that are bid- 
den to the marriage supper of the Lamb." 
The Old Testament Prophets will be there, 
headed by John the Baptist, the last and great- 



86 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



est of them — the friends of the Bridegroom 
rejoicing greatly because of the Bridegroom's 
voice. There will be the great company of 
Old Testament believers, the spirits of just 
men made perfect. The General Assembly 
and Church of the Firstborn will constitute 
the radiant bride, shining forth in the glory 
of the Father, God the Judge of all, and owing 
everything to her Lord and Husband, even 
Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and 
to the blood of sprinkling which speaketh bet- 
ter things than that of Abel. 

These are great things and overpowering 
to the finite mind, and we need the reminder 
just here — "These are the true words of God." 
We are not following a cunningly devised fa- 
ble. We are reading the true words of God. 
He is not a man, that He should lie. His Word 
is settled for ever in Heaven and is true from 
the beginning. May He graciously deliver us 
from the awful sin of making Him a liar, and 
help us to believe Him. 

The apostle is well nigh overcome by these 
wonderful visions and falls down before his 
angelic guide in worship. He is quickly re- 
buked, however, and warned that worship be- 
longs to God alone. His attention is directed 
to Jesus as the center of all these apocalyptic 
visions and theme of the prophetic Word, "for 
the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of proph- 
ecy." It is well to ponder this statement care- 
fully and to learn from it that the written Word 



COMING OF THE SON OF MAN. 87 



is not to be understood except as unfolding to 
us the person of Him who is Himself the Liv- 
ing Word. This is the key to all prophecy, and 
prophecy in its broadest sense includes the 
whole of the Scriptures. The spirit of proph- 
ecy is the testimony of Jesus. 

And now what a glorious sight meets our 
eyes ! The Heavens are opened and riding 
upon a white horse we see our Lord Himself, 
the Faithful and True, coming forth with 
power and great glory, to judge and make 
war. He is very unlike that poor despised 
peasant carpenter with marred visage and 
humble mien, for "His eyes are a flame of fire, 
and upon His head are many diadems ; and He 
hath a name written which no one knoweth but 
He Himself.'' But it is "this same Jesus," for 
He is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with 
blood; and His name is called, "The Word of 
God." His bride accompanies Him in the arm- 
ies which are in Heaven, following Him upon 
white horses. This is "the Revelation of the 
Lord Jesus from Heaven with His messen- 
gers of power, in flaming fire, rendering ven- 
geance to them that know not God, and to 
them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord 
Jesus : who shall suffer punishment, even eter- 
nal destruction from the face of the Lord and 
from the glory of His might, when He shall 
come to be glorified in His saints, and to be 
marveled at in all them that believed in that 
day." (11. Thess. 1:7-10.) His followers are 



88 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



on white horses like His own, for they share 
His glory, according to the promise, "When 
He shall be manifested we shall also be mani- 
fested with Him in glory/' (Col. 3:4), and 
again, "When He shall appear, we shall be 
like Him." (1. Jno. 3:2.) 

The sharp sword proceeding out of His 
mouth is the eternal Word of God, which liv- 
eth and abideth for ever, and by which the 
world shall be judged — with it He shall smite 
the nations, and He shall rule them with a 
rod of iron. He comes as King of Kings and 
Lord of Lords and in establishing His Lord- 
ship He treads the winepress of the wrath of 
God, the Almighty. This was all told out by 
the prophet Isaiah in his sixty-third chapter, 
as we saw in a former study. It is the great 
battle of Har-Magedon, referred to in chapter 
16. 

This awful battle, in which the satanic hordes, 
led by the Beast-King at the head of the kings of 
the Earth, are gathered together to make war 
against Him that sits upon the horse, and 
against His army, is preceded by the announce- 
ment of an angel standing in the sun and call- 
ing to the birds flying in mid-heaven to come 
and be gathered together unto the Great Sup- 
per of God, that they may eat the flesh of 
kings, captains and mighty men, and of horses 
and horsemen, and of all men, freemen and 
slaves, small and great. 

The battle is a short one and the issue is 



THE GREAT SUPPER OP GOD. , 89 



quickly settled. It is the Lord Himself who 
does all the fighting against the confederated 
armies of the world, and all the killing is by 
the sword proceeding from His mouth. The 
Beast-King and the False Prophet are cast into 

the lake of fire and brimstone and their armies 
are slain by that Word of God which is quick 
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged 
sword; and all the birds are filled with their 
flesh. 

What a terrible picture this is ! Let it be 
remembered that the Artist who painted it is 
God Himself. He has in His great compas- 
sion told us beforehand concerning things not 
seen as yet, and He tells us that all these 
things must shortly come to pass. What does 
it all mean to you? I ask you, my friends out 
of Christ, is it wise for you to put away from 
you God's gracious offer of present and eter- 
nal salvation ? What will it profit you to make 
the most of this world, if in the next you find 
yourself for ever banished from the presence 
of the Lord and plunged in the depths of eter- 
nal misery and torment? 

And you, my worldly Christian friend — can 
I call you Brother? Are you a Christian in 
fact as well as in name? Were you ever born 
again or did you just experience some indef- 
inite temporary emotion? Is your name writ- 
ten in Heaven or merely on the roll of some of 
the churches? The churches, for the most part, 
are hopelessly apostate, and the Lord is about 



9 o SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



to spue them out of His mouth: where will 
you be then? You are lusting after the things 
of the world — are you sure that you are not 
of the world? You are miserable among the 
Lord's people and your soul loathes the light 
Bread of God sent down from Heaven ; you are 
hankering for the cucumbers and leeks and 
onions and garlic of Egypt — are you certain 
that you ever really left Egypt? You say a 
man must live, even if to do so he resorts to 
the tricks of the Devil — are you perfectly sat- 
isfied that you are not of the Devil's brood, 
after all? What doth it profit a man if he gain 
the whole world and lose his own soul? Ex- 
amine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith. 
Look well to your foundations, for the floods 
will soon come and if your foundation be 
wrong, your fair building will go down. Other 
foundation can no man lay than that is laid, 
which is Jesus Christ. Build only upon Him 
— trust only in Him — and then you need not 
fear the coming of the Day of Wrath. Blessed 
be His Name for ever and ever! Amen. 

"O, that Thy Name may be sounded 

Afar over Earth and sea, 
Till the dead awaken and praise Thee, 

And the dumb lips sing to Thee! 
Sound forth as a song of triumph 

Wherever man's foot has trod. 
The despised, the derided message, 

The foolishness of God. 
Jesus, dishonored and dying, 

A felon on either side — 



JESUS THE SAFE FOUNDATION, 



Jesus, the song of the drunkards, 

Jesus, the Crucified! 
Name of God's tender comfort, 

Name of His glorious power, 
Name that is song and sweetness, 

The strong everlasting tower. 
Jesus, the Lamb accepted, 

Jesus, the Priest on His throne — 
Jesus, the King Who is coming — 

Jesus, Thy Name alone!" 



PART III. — SECTION 9.— THE MILLEN- 
NIAL REIGN. 



(Chapter 20.) 

"With righteousness shall He judge the poor, 
and decide with equity for the meek of the Earth; 
and He shall smite the Earth with the rod of His 
mouth; and with the breath of His lips shall He slay 
the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle 
of His waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins." 
(Isa. 11:4, 5.) 

It is important in the study of the prophetic 
Word to keep in mind the order of events. 
Let us remember that the first thing on the 
program, as revealed in the Scriptures, is the 
catching out of the Church to meet the Lord 
in the air. This great event is the hope of 
the Lord's people, and a blessed hope it is. 
We are not to look for the conversion of the 
world through the preaching of the Gospel. 
The world will not be saved in that way. We 
are not told to expect any such thing, but we 
are exhorted to be expecting Him. He is at 
the very door, and at any moment He may 
come for us. Nothing could be plainer than 
the testimony of God upon this subject. "The 
Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with 
a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and 
with the trump of God ; and the dead in Christ 

shall rise first. Then we which are alive and 

92 



THE ORDER OF EVENTS. 



93 



remain shall be caught up together with them 
in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." 
We believe God and we are looking, moment 
by moment, for our Lord's return. Every 
Christian should occupy this attitude — serv- 
ing the living and true God and waiting for 
His Son from Heaven. 

The departure of the Church from the Earth 
will be but temporary. She will return with 
her Lord when He comes in the clouds of 
Heaven with power and great glory to judge 
the world and reign as King of Kings and Lord 
of Lords. Wherever He goes she will go, for 
she is His bride and the promise is "so shall 
we ever be with the Lord." 

Following the Rapture of the Church — that 
is, her catching up to meet the Lord in the 
air — there will take place in Heaven the Judg- 
ment of Believers' Works, described in I. Co- 
rinthians 3:11-15,, After this will come the 
Marriage of the Lamb. On the Earth there will 
be the terrible judgments of the seals, trumpets 
and bowls, of which we have been studying in 
this book. An innumerable multitude out of 
all nations will turn to God, and millions will 
suffer martyrdom for the name of Jesus. A 
remnant of Israel will be converted and God 
will use these Jewish believers to evangelize 
the Gentile world. They will go everywhere 
preaching and saying, "The Kingdom of Heav- 
en is at hand." And this Gospel of the King- 
dom will be preached in all the world for a 



94 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



witness unto all nations, and then shall the end 
come. What that end is, we saw in our last 
study. It is the fulfillment of Enoch's proph- 
ecy — -"Behold! The Lord cometh with my- 
riads of His saints to execute judgment upon 
all !" 

What a contrast between the first and sec- 
ond advents of our Lord ! He will come, not 
now as a helpless babe, but as a mighty war- 
rior; not now as a Man of Sorrows, to be led 
as a lamb to the slaughter, but as a glorious 
King and Potentate, to judge and to make 
war. 

"He is coming! He is coming! 

Not as once He came before 
Wailing infant, born in weakness, 

On a lowly stable floor; 
But upon a cloud of glory, 

ill the crimson-tinted sky. 
Where we see the golden sunrise 

In the rosy distance lie. 

"He is coming! He is coming! 

Not in pain and shame and woe: 
With the thorn-crown on His forehead 

And the blood-drops trickling slow; 
But with diadem upon Him 

And a scepter in His hand, 
And the saints all ranged before Him, 

A transfigured happy band. 

"He is coming! He is coming! 

Not as once He wandered through 
All the hostile land of Judah, 

With His foll'wers poor and few; 



THE BINDING OF SATAN, 95 



But with all the holy angels 
Waiting 'round His judgment seat, 

And the chosen twelve apostles, 
Sitting, crowned, at His feet." 

The Battle of Har-Magedon occurs imme- 
diately upon His glorious appearing, and the 
Beast-King and False Prophet are cast alive 
into the burning lake, while their armies are 
slain by the breath of His mouth. The Great 
Supper of God follows, all the birds of the air 
being filled with the flesh of the slain. 

The analysis of the twentieth chapter is 
sevenfold. We are told here (i) of the binding 
of Satan ; (2) of the first resurrection ; (3) of 
the Millennial reign of the Lord Jesus and His 
saints; (4) of the loosing of Satan; (5) of the 
last war; (6) of the judgment of Satan; and 
(7) of the second resurrection and second 
death. v , 

The Binding of Satan. 

There is a widespread notion that Satan 
is a myth ; and it is safe to say that nothing 
could please him more. Being a liar from the 
beginning, doubtless he has manufactured this 
most subtle and artful of lies — that there is 
no Devil; for it is entirely according to his 
purpose that men should not believe in his 
existence. 

This mysterious personage figures very 
largely in Scripture. He is not only a very 
real person, as shown by the personal names. 



96 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



personal pronouns and personal acts attrib- 
uted to him, but he is a very great person as 
well. In nature he is a spirit — "the spirit that 
now worketh in the children of disobedience." 
He is evidently the spiritual king described in 
the wonderful language of Ezekiel 28:11-17. 
He is a fallen being, for Jesus says of him in 
John 8:44, that he abode (or, continued) not 
in the truth, and in 1. Timothy 3:6, it is writ- 
ten that pride was the cause of his fall. He is 
not one of the fallen angels spoken of in Jude 
6 and 11. Peter 2:4, for they are in everlast- 
ing bonds, while he is still at large, and goeth 
about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he 
may devour. He has a Kingdom, and Jesus 
spoke of it in Matthew 12:26. He has agents 
in the unseen world, including angels, princi- 
palities and powers, the hosts of wicked spirits 
in the Heavens, the demons of the air. He 
also has agents in this visible world. Men and 
women who are in rebellion against God are 
referred to in the Scriptures as children of 
their father, the Devil. He has ministers also, 
but these are always in disguise, fashioning 
themselves into apostles of Christ and min- 
isters of righteousness. (11. Cor. 11:13-15; 
Rev. 3 : 9.) 

Satan has great power. He is the Prince of 
this World, the God of this World, the Prince 
of the Power of the Air. But his power, 
though great, and even supernatural, is not di- 
vine and is not unlimited. Satan is hasting to 



THE DEVIL XOT YET IN HELL. 97 



a terrible fate, which is described in our chap- 
ter. He has already been judged and the 
wrath of God will presently overtake and 
overwhelm him. Meanwhile, though the whole 
world lieth in the Wicked One, he is neverthe- 
less restrained by the hand of Omnipotence, 
and our God has set the bounds, beyond which 
he cannot pass, and He Who is able to make 
the wrath of men to praise Him is even using 
the arch enemy himself to test the human heart 
and accomplish the divine purpose. 

It is hardly necessary to say in this place 
that the popular notion that the Devil is a 
king in Hell has no foundation in the Scrip- 
tures. He has never yet had his headquarters 
in Hell, though that place is specially pre- 
pared for the Devil and his angels. And when 
he does go into Hell, it will not be as a 
king, but as the most abject sufferer there. 
His dwelling place at this present time is in 
the Heavens; and he has access from time to 
time into the presence of God Himself, where 
he accuses the brethren day and night. He 
will be cast out of Heaven with his angels after 
the Rapture of the Church, as prophesied and 
described in the twelfth chapter of The Revela- 
tion. He will raise up and energize the Beast- 
King and the False Prophet, as seen in chap- 
ter thirteen. He will gather the world's arm- 
ies to battle against the Lord and His saints 
at Har-Magedon in Palestine, as set forth in 
chapter nineteen ; and He will be cast into the 



98 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



Abyss for a thousand years, as we read in the 
opening paragraph of chapter twenty. 

It seems to be a very easy matter to chain 
the Devil. When the time comes the Lord 
just sends an angel with a chain and the thing 
is done. Sometimes you have despaired and 
been tempted to think that our God has been 
overpowered by our strong enemy. Never 
fear; that issue was settled long ago at a per- 
sonal meeting between our Lord and the ad- 
versary. When God is ready it will be a per- 
fectly easy matter to shut the Devil up in a 
cage for a thousand years. He would be put 
into the lake of fire at once, along with the 
beast and false prophet, but the Lord has 
further use for him after a while and in the 
meantime one angel is quite sufficient to care 
for him. 

The First Resurrection. 

Then comes the glorious vision of the bless- 
ed and holy ones that have part in the first 
resurrection. There are the enthroned saints 
who come forth out of Heaven with the Lord. 
There are also the witnesses of Jesus who have 
laid down their lives for Him during the ter- 
rors of The Great Tribulation. Their bodies 
are raised from the dead and they are given a 
place among the enthroned ones. They live 
and reign with Christ a thousand years, 
Literally, the word here is "they came to life, 
and were kings with Christ for a thousand 



THE TWO RESURRECTIONS. 90 



years." The lost dead — the rest of the dead 
—remain in their graves during the Millennial 
Age; they live not again until the thousand 
years shall be finished. This is the first resur- 
rection, and only the saved ones have part in 
it. 

This is surely very plain language and it 
would seem impossible to misunderstand it. 
And yet men go on talking and writing of "the 
general resurrection." There will never be 
such a thing. The resurrections will be a 
thousand years apart. All will be raised from 
the dead, "but every man in his own order." 
Only they that are Christ's at His coming; 
only those who are in Jesus, either asleep in 
Him or alive and remaining unto His coming, 
will have part in the first resurrection. "Bless- 
ed and holy is he that hath part in the first 
resurrection ; over these the second death hath 
no power; but they shall be priests of God 
and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a 

thousand years." 

The Millennial Kingdom. 

And what shall be said of the Millennium 
itself? This word, derived from the Latin 
"mille" and "annum," meaning "a thousand 
years" has for all the ages been the theme of 
poetry and prophecy. Though not the eternal 
state, it will be an age of indescribable blessed- 
ness. Think of it ! Satan restrained and Jesus 
on the throne! The whole world one vast 



ioo SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



empire, its capital at Jerusalem ; and absolute 
righteousness and perfect peace everywhere! 
The curse removed from the human race and 
the whole creation redeemed from the bondage 
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the 
sons of God ! The wilderness blossoming as 
a rose ; thorns and briers giving way to fir- 
trees and myrtle trees ! The whole Earth filled 
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as 
the waters cover the sea ! When no man shall 
say to his brother, Know the Lord ; for all shall 
know Him, from the least even to the great- 
est! The horrible butchery of war stopped — 
for He shall judge between the nations and 
will decide concerning many peoples ; and they 
shall beat their swords into plowshares and 
their spears into pruning-hooks ; nation shall 
not lift up sword against nation, neither shall 
they learn war any more ! 

O, may God hasten the glad day ! We long 
for our Lord to come, for all this awaits His 
coming. He will bring joy and gladness. He 
will bring peace and salvation. 

"Hail to the Lord's Anointed — 

Great David's Greater Sonl 
When to the time appointed 

The rolling years shall run, 
He comes to break oppression. 

To set the captive free, 
To take away transgression 

And rule in equity. 



THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM. 101 



"The heavens — which now conceal Him 

In counsels deep and wise — 
In glory shall reveal Him 

To our rejoicing eyes; 
He Who with hands uplifted 

Went from the Earth below, 
Shall come again all gifted, 

His blessing to bestow. 

"He shall come down like showers 

Upon the new-mown grass, 
And joy and hope, like flowers, 

Spring up where He doth pass; 
Before Him, on the mountains, 

Shall peace, the herald, go; 
And righteousness, in fountains, 

From hill to valley flow. 

"Kings shall fall down before Him, 

And gold and incense bring; 
All nations shall adore Him, 

His praise all people sing; 
Outstretched His wide dominion, 

O'er river, sea and shore, 
Far as the eaglet pinion 

Or dove's light wing can soar." 

The Loosing of Satan. 

The remainder of the chapter reveals again 
the dark background of sin and its awful work. 
Satan is temporarily released and the evil of 
the human heart is again demonstrated. In- 
numerable millions of men and women have 
been born during the Millennial Age, but many 
of them have not been born again, and their 
hearts are far from God, though yielding out- 



102 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



ward obedience. The loosing of Satan is to 
sift out the wheat from the chaff. An im- 
mense army is gathered together in rebellion 
against the Lord, the number of whom is as 
the sand of the sea. 

The Last War. 

Gog and Magog is- doubtless a symbolic ex- 
pression, based upon the name of the foe of 
Jehovah's people Israel, as found in Ezekiel 38 
and 39. Gog is the Prince of Rosh, Meshech 
and Tubal, which are all included in the Rus- 
sian empire. God has already begun dealing 
with the empire of Russia, bringing it into 
judgment for its cruelty toward His ancient 
people, and this is but a foretaste of the com- 
ing judgment. The prophecy of Ezekiel 38 
an d 39, however, have to do with events before 
the Millennium, while our chapter is dealing 
with the great Post-Millennial conflict. Satan 
leads his armies up over the breadth of the 
earth and surrounds the camp of the saints 
and the beloved city — Jerusalem — and fire 
comes down out of Heaven and devours them. 
Surely, "our God is a consuming fire," 

The Judgment of Satan. 

The Devil's work is ended now, and we see 
him consigned to the lake of fire, where are 
also the beast and false prophet ; "and they 
shall be tormented day and night for ever and 

ever/' 



AFTER THE THOUSAND YEARS. 



103 



The Second Resurrection and the Second Death. 

Finally, we are called upon to view the aw- 
ful scenes of the Judgment of the Wicked 
Dead. This is not the general judgment, for 
there is no such thing in Scripture. Only the 
lost are seen before the Great White Throne 
in this Judgment. The saved have all been 
gathered into their Father's house long ago, 
and now the wicked, the impenitent rebels 
against the goodness of God, are to be called 
to account. What a solemn sight now meets 
the gaze of our apostle ! Nowhere in all liter- 
ature is there such a majestic and awful de- 
scription as this : 

"And I saw a Great White Throne, and Him 
that sat upon it, from Whose face the Earth 
and the Heaven fled awav ; and there was 
found no place for them. And I saw the dead, 
the great and the small, standing before the 
throne; and books were opened; and another 
book was opened, which is the Book of Life; 
and the dead were judged out of the things 
which were written in the books, according to 
their works. And the sea gave up the dead 
which were in it : and Death and Hades gave 
up the dead which were in them : and they 
were judged, every man, according to their 
works. And Death and Hades were cast into 
the lake of fire. This is the second death, even 
the lake of fire. And if any was not found 
written in the Book of Life, he was cast into 
the lake of fire. ,, 



io4 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



That is all. How very brief — and yet how 
comprehensive and full of terrible meaning! 
Not a soul saved out of all that vast throng 
of humanity! And why? Is it because they 
were sinners? Surely not; for, then must we 
all perish. Judged only according to our 
works, we should all sink into Hell. What 
then? Are they lost because they were great- 
er sinners than others? Nay, not that, for sin 
is sin, and our holy God cannot look upon it 
in any degree nor in any form. These per- 
ished, not because they were condemned by 
the books, but because their names were not 
found in the Book of Life. 

O, my reader, is your name there? Is it 
there? Are you sure of it? Is there any 
slightest doubt of it? Let me beg of you, let 
me beseech you, let me implore you — give all 
diligence to make your calling and election 
sure. O, that I might shout it in your ears 
so that it would reach your heart — are you 
saved? Have you eternal life? What are you 
trusting? Don't be deceived! Look not to 
yourself — your life will damn you. Look not 
to your neighbor — no man can by any means 
redeem his brother. Look not to your baptism 
or your Church-membership or to the many 
works, mighty or otherwise, done in the Lord's 
Name — to many such workers He will say in 
that day, "I never knew you ! Depart from 
me, ye that work iniquity!" 

Thanks be to God, there are many who are 



JESUS ONLY. 



resting on the Rock which the floods can never 
move. How precious is Jesus to these ! They 
speak not of the filthy rags of their own right- 
eousnesses. They sing rather, 

"Oh, I am my Beloved's 

And my Beloved's mine! 
He brings a poor vile sinner 

Into His house of wine. 
1 stand upon His merit, 

I know no other stand, 
Not e'en where glory dwelleth 

In Immanuel's Land." 

These shall not be ashamed before Him at 
His coming. May God grant that every one 
of us may thus put our trust alone in Him ! 
For He is able to save to the uttermost all that 
come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth 
to make intercession for them, 



PART III.— SECTION 10.— THE NEW 
HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH. 



(Chapter 21: 1-8.) 



"Behold, I create new Heavens and a new Earth; 
and the former things shall not be remembered, 
nor come into mind." (Isa. 65: 17.) 



The first verse of the twenty-first chapter 
has reference to the eleventh verse of the pre- 
ceding chapter. In this latter John told us 
that he saw a Great White Throne, and Him 
that sat upon it, from whose face the Earth and 
the Heaven fled away; and there was found 
no place for them. Then after describing the 
Judgment of the Wicked Dead, he goes on to 
say, "I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth ; 
for the first Heaven and the first Earth are 
passed away." In 11. Peter 3: 10-14, the same 
thing is described in greater detail. Peter 
writes : "The Day of the Lord will come as 
a thief, in which the Heavens shall pass away 
with a great noise, and the elements shall be 
dissolved with fervent heat, and the Earth and 
the works that are therein shall be burned up. 
Seeing that these things are thus all to be dis- 
solved, what manner of persons ought ye to 
be in all holy living and godliness, looking for 
and earnestly desiring the coming of the Day 

106 



THE NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH. 107 



of God, by reason of which the Heavens being 
on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements 
shall melt with fervent heat. But, according 
to His promise, we look for new Heavens and 
a new Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for 
these things, give diligence that ye may be 
found in peace, without spot and blameless in 
His sight." 

We notice that Peter places all this in the 
period called the Day of the Lord, and from 
this and other Scriptures we learn that the 
Day of the Lord, beginning with the coming of 
the Son of man to judge the world, goes right 
through the Millennium itself and to the very end 
of time and the threshold of Eternity. Man has 
his day at this present time — the Day of the Lord 
is surely coming, and coming "as a thief," to 
those who are out of Christ and not ready for 
its coming. The word to His own people is, 
"Ye are not in darkness, that that day should 
overtake you as a thief." (1. Thess. 5 : 4.) 

The new Heaven and Earth will doubtless 
be the present Heaven and Earth in their re- 
newed and final condition. To quote Peter 
again (11. Peter 3:3-7): "In the last days 
mockers shall come with mockery, walking- 
after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the 
promise of His coming? for, from the day that 
the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as 
they were from the beginning of the creation. 



io8 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



For this they wilfully forget, that there were 
Heavens from of old, and an Earth compacted 
out of water and amidst water, by the Word of 
God; by which means the world that then 
was, being overflowed with water, perished ; 
but the Heavens that now are, and the Earth, 
by the same word have been stored up for fire, 
being reserved against the Day of Judgment 
and destruction of ungodly men." 

Thus the Earth and Heaven which come out 
of the flood, though really the same as those 
which passed into and through it, are spoken 
of as new, for they were renewed and reno- 
vated by the purifying waters. The change 
that awaits them will be decidedly more radi- 
cal, for they will be made new by the baptism 
of fire. The Heaven and Earth which now are 
must be purified, for they have long been the 
abode of Satan and sin. In the new Heaven 
and the new Earth righteousness is to dwell. 
Righteousness is a rare thing in the Earth now 
— indeed, God plainly declares that "there is 
none righteous ; no, not one." In that day 
there will be no unrighteousness. Righteous- 
ness is preached now; it is God's gift to him 
that believeth; but that has to do with our 
position rather than our condition; our stand- 
ing rather than our state. In us, that is, in 
our flesh, dwelleth no good thing. In the 
Millennium righteousness will reign; but in the 
eternal state righteousness will dwell, or abide, 
for ever. Evil is rampant now; it will be re- 



NO MORE SEA. 



log 



strained during the Thousand Years ; but in 
the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times 
there will be no evil — -for the former things are 
passed away. 

All this will be brought about by the mighty 
hand of the Lord Jesus Himself. This is 
shown by the words addressed by the Father 
to the Eternal Son in Psalm 102:25-27, and 
quoted in Hebrews 1 : 10-12: "Thou, Lord, in 
the beginning didst lay the foundation of the 
Earth, and the Heavens are the works of Thy 
hands : they shall perish ; but Thou continuest : 
and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; 
and as a mantle shalt Thou roll them up, as a 
garment, and they shall be changed ; but Thou 
art the same, and Thy years shall not fail." 

No More Sea. 

"And the sea is no more." The ocean would 
seem to be a necessary thing for the present 
Earth, but in the renewed Earth the sea will 
have disappeared. This is doubtless true in 
both the literal and the spiritual sense. The 
sea in the Bible is ever a type of the restless, 
rebellious world, as in Isaiah 57:20, 21 — "The 
wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can- 
not rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt. 
There is no peace ; saith my God, to the wick- 
ed." 

For the present it is Jehovah who shuts up 
the sea with doors, making clouds the garment 
thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band 



no SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION 



for it, and marking out for it His bound, set- 
ting bars and doors and saying, Hitherto shalt 
thou come, but no further, and here shall thy 
proud waves be stayed. (Job 38: 8-1 1.) Once 
He allowed the sea to swallow up the Earth, 
and the waters stood above the mountains, 
but at His rebuke they fled and at the voice 
of His thunder they hasted away ; and He hath 
set a bound that they may not pass over, that 
they turn not again to cover the Earth. (Ps. 
104:6-9.) 

Thus does God deal with the sea of waters 
and the sea of sin. But the carnal mind is 
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed 
can be, and it will be a glad day when there 
shall be no sea and when the Earth shall be 
filled with the knowledge of the glory of Je- 
hovah as the waters now cover the sea. 

The Holy City. 

In verse 2 John says : "I saw the holy city, 
New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven 
from God, made ready as a bride adorned for 
her husband." This is the bride, the Lamb's 
wife, whose description in detail we have in 
our next study. In the glorious times that are 
coming everything will center about the two 
Jerusalems. There will be the restored and 
greatly enlarged earthly Jerusalem, the center 
and metropolis of the Millennial kingdom, and 
there will also be the heavenly Jerusalem, the 
bride of the Lamb. I doubt not that the re- 



THE ETERNAL STATE. 



in 



newed Earth will be the possession and dwell- 
ing-place of the people of Israel in the eternal 
state, and that the Church of God, which is 
even now His heavenly people, will reside for 
ever in the heavenly city. 

Isaiah cheered his brethren in Israel by his 
glowing prophecies concerning the future 
glory of the earthly city. In chapter 65, verses 
17-19, God speaks through His servant, say- 
ing: "Behold, I create new Heavens and a 
new Earth; and the former things shall not be 
remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye 
glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create ; 
for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and 
her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jeru- 
salem and joy in her people; and there shall 
be heard in her no more the voice of weeping 
and the voice of crying." 

The Eternal State. 

The great voice out of the throne, so often 
heard in this book, the voice of the Great 
King, is now heard, saying, "Behold, the taber- 
nacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell 
with them and they shall be His peoples, and 
God Himself shall be with them and be their 
God ; and He shall wipe away every tear from 
their eyes ; and death shall be no more ; neither 
shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, 
any more; the first things are passed away." 

This, then, is the consummation of all things. 
And He that sitteth on the throne said, "Be- 



ii2 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



hold, I make all things new." And then, just 
as the poor heart seems ready to burst for the 
very greatness of the revelations, He speaks 
again, saying, ''Write: for these words are 
faithful and true." Well He knows how prone 
to unbelief is the human heart. We are con- 
stantly saying to ourselves that it is all too 
great, too wonderful for us ; it is surely too 
good to be true. Nay, but it is all true. These 
words are true and faithful, for they are from 
Him Whose name is the True and Faithful 
Witness. They are so true that all is as good 
as done already — "And He said unto me, they 
are come to pass." He knows the end from 
the beginning, for He Himself is the A and the 
Z, the Beginning and the Ending. And He 
says, "They are come to pass !" 

And, oh, how His heart goes out for the 
sinner ! He cannot give you up, my unsaved 
friend. Listen to Him : "I will give unto 
him that is athirst of the fountain of the water 
of life freely." Are you longing for these 
things? Your longing is your title to them: 
they belong to "him that is athirst." There is 
no stint. All is given and all is given freely. 
"He that overcometh shall inherit these things 
and I will be his God, and he shall be My 
son." 

How shall you overcome ? There is but one 
way; it is by the blood of the Lamb. He is 
the great Overcomer and He has overcome 
for you ; and you have but to take freefy of 



THE SECOND DEATH. 



H3 



the water of life. He has labored and you need 
only to enter into His labors. 

And if you do not enter in — what then? 
Ah; what then? There is a dreadful alterna- 
tive. May God cause these words to sink 
down into your ears and even into your very 
heart. There is enough and to spare for the 
thirsty comer — for he is the overcomer; he 
shall inherit these things. "But for the fearful, 
and unbelieving, and abominable, and murder- 
ers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idola- 
ters, and all liars, their part shall be in the 
lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; 
which is the second death." 

This horrible punishment, though prepared 
especially for the Devil and his angels, is nev- 
ertheless surely in store for men who will not 
receive the love of the truth that they may be 
saved. Men are going down to Hell like a 
flock, only because they hate God and Heaven. 
The carnal mind is enmity against God, and 
an unregenerate man would soon turn a Heav- 
en into a Hell. Whoever goes down to the pit 
will have himself to blame for it, for no man 
will suffer damnation but for the one sin of 
rejecting the light of the knowledge of God 
which lighteth every man that cometh into 
the world. (See John 1:9; 3:18, 19; 1. John 
5 : 9-12.) Jesus bore all the sins of the human 
race in His own body on the tree and the only 
sin which can now consign men to perdition 
is the sin of making God a liar and counting 



ii4 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



the blood of the covenant an unholy thing. To 
such, "our God is a consuming fire;" for, 
though He is kind and merciful. He is also 
righteous and holy, and He will not hold guilt- 
less the haters and despisers of Jesus. 

In the third chapter of Mark there is a sig- 
nificant incident bearing upon this point. The 
Lord Jesus was working miracles, which His 
enemies felt called upon to explain. Of course, 
the true explanation was that He was filled 
with the Holy Spirit of God, Who wrought 
these wonders through Him. Unwilling to 
admit this, "the Scribes which came down from 
Jerusalem" said that Jesus had the Prince of 
the Demons indwelling Him. In reply, the 
Lord Jesus uttered a most solemn warning: 
"Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be for- 
given unto the sons of men, and blasphemies 
wherewith soever they shall blaspheme; But 
he that shall blaspheme against the Holy 
Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger 
of eternal damnation ; because they said, He 
hath an unclean spirit." 

Essentially, this sin of blasphemy against 
the Holy Spirit was pure hatred toward the 
Son of God. It was a fitting, though awful, 
climax to all that He had endured from these 
"blind guides." It shows to what terrible 
lengths the carnal mind, which is enmity 
against God, will go. 

Everything depends upon this greatest of 
all questions : What will you do with Jesus, 



CHRIST THE FOUNTAIN. 115 

Which is called Christ? He is the Fountain: 
come to Him and drink. "Let Him that is 
athirst come!" Come just as you are and who- 
ever you are, for He has said, "Him that Com- 
eth, I will in no wise cast out." 

"In the great and terrible wilderness 

I wandered in thirst and dread; 
The burning sands were beneath my feet, 

And the fierce glow overhead. 
The fiery serpents and scorpions dire 

Dwelt in that lonely land, 
And around and afar, as a glimmering sea, 

The shadowless, trackless sand. 

"Then came a day in my journey drear 

When I sank on the weary road, 
And there fell a shadow across the waste — 

The shade of the wings of God. 
The shadow solemn, and dark, and still, 

Lay cool on the purple sand; 
The shadow deep of a mighty Rock, 

In a weary, thirsty land. 

"Of old from Heaven the thunder fell, 

And that mighty Rock was riven, 
And a river of water flowed down to me — ■ 

A stream of the rain of Heaven. 
And the hand that reft with the thunder dread 

The Rock of the Ages hoar, 
Down to my lips the waters led, 

And I thirsted never more. 

?< For out of the great eternal deep 

Those glorious waters flowed; 
They flowed from the fathomless depths of joy, 

They flowed from the heart of God. 



n6 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



From the depths of the tenderness all unknown, 

That passeth knowledge, they flow; 
I know it as ages of bliss roll on, 

Yet I never shall say, 'I know.' 

"And there, before the Rock that was riven, 

At the feet of the Lord who died. 
I drink of the depths of the love of Heaven, 

The mighty, exhaustless tide. 
'Drink, drink abundantly, O beloved! 

I was smitten, accursed for thee.' 
O, lips as lilies, O mouth most sweet 

That tell Thy heart to me!" 



PART III.— SECTION n.— OUR SAV- 
IOUR'S PARTING WORD. 



(Chapter 21 : 9 — 22 : 21.) 



"Surely, I come quickly." (Rev. 22:20.) 



Some questions may have risen in the 
reader's mind with reference to the details of 
the Millennial period. We must be careful not 
to run before the Lord and seek to become 
wise above that which is written, for it has 
not pleased Him to reveal to us as yet all the 
things which shall come to pass. He has, how- 
ever, graciously opened His heart to us regard- 
ing these things and we must be equally care- 
ful not to lag behind Him as He seeks to lead 
us into the truth. The true principle was 
given to Israel, through Moses, in Deuteron- 
omy 29 : 29 — "The secret things belong unto 
Jehovah our God: but those things which are 
revealed belong unto us and to our children 
for ever, that we may do all the words of this 
law." 

In answer to these questions it may be 
pointed out that the whole world will not be 
converted at the opening of the Thousand 
Years. Satan will be bound, but the flesh will 
still be here, and the mind of the flesh is not 
subject to the law of God. Righteousness 

117 



n8 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



will rule, for the Earth shall then be under the 
scepter of the Lord Jesus as King of Nations, 
and He will be able to enforce His decrees. 
Those who rebel He "will break in pieces like 
a potter's vessel/' and willingly or unwillingly, 
every knee shall finally bow and every tongue 
confess His lordship, His power and His right 
to rule. 

Israel will be converted to God in advance of 
the other nations. And probably not all Israel 
at once, for as David reigned first over Judah 
for seven and a half years in Hebron and then 
thirty-three years over all Israel in Jerusalem ; 
so, doubtless, the dispersed of Judah will be 
the first to look upon Him whom they pierced 
and hail Him as their King. The work of 
building the great metropolitan city of Jeru- 
salem, with its immense Temple and other 
buildings, will be begun, and in due time the 
Lord Jesus will gather together all Israel in 
such a way as to astonish and amaze the 
world. "Behold, the days come, saith the 
Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous 
Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, 
and shall execute judgment and justice in the 
Earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and 
Israel shall dwell safely : and this is His name 
whereby He shall be called, 'The Lord Our 
Righteousness.' Therefore, behold, the days 
come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more 
say, 'The Lord liveth, Which brought up the 
children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;' 



THE EARTHLY JERUSALEM. iig 

&» - 

but, 'The Lord liveth, Which brought up and 
Which led the seed of the house of Israel out 
of the north country, and from all countries/ 
whither I had driven them, and they shall 
dwell in their own land." (Jer. 23 : 5-8.) 

The Earthly Jerusalem. 

The restored earthly Jerusalem, the metro- 
politan capital and commercial and political 
center of the Millennial Kingdom of Heaven, 
which will then be established in the Earth, 
must not be confused with "the Holy City, 
New Jerusalem," which will not be situated on 
the Earth, but rather in the air, over the Earth. 
The earthly city is fully and circumstantially 
described in Ezekiel, chapters 40-48, together 
with the restored Temple and the surround- 
ings of the city. The present city of Jerusalem, 
trodden down of the Gentiles, is a small thing 
compared with the city shown to Ezekiel and 
described by him. The restored city will be 
over nine miles square, with a circuit of thirty- 
seven miles. The present city has never ex- 
ceeded four or five miles in circumference. 
The Temple of the Millennial city will be a mile 
square. The city will occupy a plain includ- 
ing the site of old Jerusalem and much more, 
which will be prepared for it by a great earth- 
quake when the Lord's feet shall stand upon 
the Mount of Olives at His coming to take 
His great power and reign. "And His feet shall 
stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, 



120 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the 
Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst 
thereof, toward the east and toward the west, 
and there shall be a very great valley; and 
half of the mountain shall remove toward the 
north, and half of it toward the south." (Zech. 
14:4.) The earthquake will open a great 
water-way connecting Jerusalem with the 
Mediterranean Sea on the one hand and the 
Dead Sea on the other. "And it shall be in 
that day, that living waters shall go out from 
Jerusalem; half of them toward the former 
sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea ; 
in summer and in winter shall it be. And the 
Lord shall be King over all the Earth ; in that 
day shall there be one Lord, and His name one. 
All the land shall be turned as a plain from 
Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem; and it 
shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, 
from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the 
first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the 
tower of Hananeel unto the king's wine- 
presses." (Zech. 14:8-10.) 

The Dead Sea and its surrounding waste 
land will be reclaimed from their present bar- 
renness by these great physical changes and 
the Syrian Desert will be irrigated into a gar- 
den of verdant beauty and rich fruitfulness. 
(Ezekiel 47: 8-12.) 

The restored Land of Palestine will be much 
larger than that over which David reigned and 
will occupy all that territory lying between 



THE COMING GLORY. 



121 



thw, Mediterranean Sea on the west, the Red 
Sea And Persian Gulf on the south, the River 
Euphrates on the east, and the Caspian and 
Black Seas on the north. It will be the most 
advantageously located land in the world and 
all nations shall gravitate towards it. 

The Lord Jesus will reign in visible majesty 
and power, occupying the throne of David in 
the great restored city. The whole Earth, re- 
deemed from the curse, will be a fruitful field 
of luxuriance and beauty. 

The Heavenly Jerusalem. 

The Holy City, New Jerusalem, will be all 
this time located over the Earth and visible 
from it, as the sun is now visible from it. The 
Church of God, the Lamb's wife, will be as- 
sociated, as queen, with her Lord in His reign 
as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The 
throne, as the seat of universal power, will be 
located in the heavenly Jerusalem, while the 
throne having local and special relation to Is- 
rael will be in the earthly city. The nation of 
Israel will then become a Kingdom of Priests 
and through them the knowledge of God will 
be disseminated amongst the nations. In that 
day they that come of Jacob shall take root: 
Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the face of 
the world with fruit. (Isa. 27:6.) 

Of that day it is written : "All the ends of 
the world shall remember and turn unto the 
Lord; and all the kindred of the nations shall 
worship before Thee. For the Kingdom is 



i22 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



I 



the Lord's; and He is the Governor among 
the nations. A seed shall serve Him; it shall 
be accounted to the Lord for a generation. 
They shall come, and shall declare His right- 
eousness unto a people that shall be born, that 
He hath done this." (Ps. 22:27-31.) And 
again : "The mountains shall bring peace to 
the people, and the little hills, by righteous- 
ness. He shall judge the poor of the people, 
he shall save the children of the needy, and 
shall break in pieces the oppressor. They shall 
fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, 
throughout all generations. He shall come 
down like rain upon the mown grass : as show- 
ers that water the earth. In His days shall the 
righteous flourish ; and abundance of peace 
so long as the moon endureth. He shall have 
dominion also from sea to sea, and from the 
river unto the ends of the Earth. " (Ps. 72: 

3-8.) << . ■ - \M 

The heart fails as one seeks to grasp the 
glories to be revealed in these things not seen 
as yet. Language breaks down as one at- 
tempts to describe the things which God has 
prepared for them that love Him. And what 
then? Shall we say that because these things 
are too great for us, therefore they are too 
great also for God? Nay, for our God is a 
great God and it is He that hath created the 
Heaven and the Earth by His mighty power 
and stretched-out arm, and there is nothing too 
hard for Him. 



THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM. 123 



Well, then, let us look at this wonderful 
city, which hath the foundations, whose Build- 
er and Maker is God. We must go away in 
the Spirit with John to a mountain great and 
high, for this wondrous spectacle must be seen 
in the right perspective. 

From chapter 21:9 to 22:5 we have a de- 
scription of the city as it will appear during 
the Millennium, located above the Earth and 
visible from it. Its final and eternal state is 
seen in our previous study, in chapter 21 : 1-8. 

Now, look at it. It is not a shadow, but a 
substantial reality — the only real city in the 
universe, for it will continue for ever. It is 
seen, fresh from the hands of its divine Maker 
and Builder ; "descending out of Heaven from 
God," and "having the glory of God." The 
prayer of Moses, the man of God, for his 
people, is always the prayer of God's chosen 
ones — "Let the beauty of the Lord our God 
be upon us." This prayer will be fully an- 
swered in the New Jerusalem, for when the 
bride, the Lamb's wife, bursts upon the won- 
dering gaze of the nations it will be as "having 
the glory of God." That being true, it fol- 
lows, as a matter of course, that "her light 
is like unto a stone most precious, even like 
a jasper stone, clear as crystal." The city is 
surrounded on its four sides by a wall great 
and high, but the gates are always open in 
every direction. The names of the twelve 



124 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



tribes of Israel are written on the gates of 
pearl, for "salvation is of the Jews," and it is 
not God's purpose that we shall ever forget 
it. The gates would never have been opened 
but for that salvation coming to us through 
the now despised and dispersed nation. God 
will yet show that He hath not cast away His 
people for ever, and in that day all Israel shall 
be saved. The twelve apostles of the Lamb 
are named on the foundations of this great 
city, for the Church of God is built upon the 
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone. 
(Eph. 2 : 20.) 

This is a literal city, an actual city, a 
material city. I am sorry for the man who 
feels bound to dispose of this great city by 
the means of "spiritualizing," falsely so-called. 
God has told out His heart to us here, and far 
be it from us to toss His word aside as a light 
thing. Here are walls great and high, radiant 
with all the glorious jewelry of heaven. Here 
are gates and foundations, with names deeply 
engraved upon them. Shall we say that these 
are unreal and without actual existence? We 
have not so learned the Word of the Living 
God. 

Our apostle now witnesses the measure- 
ment of the heavenly Jerusalem, as did Ezekiel 
in the case of the restored earthly Jerusalem. 
It is done with a golden reed — surely a true 
measurement. The city is foursquare, being 



THiv HEAVENLY JERUSALEM. 125 



twelve thousand furlongs, or fifteen hundred 
miles long and fifteen hundred miles wide, 
covering an area of two and a quarter millions 
of square miles. This is over two-thirds as 
great as the total area of the United States,, 
omitting Alaska. v Such a city as this, set dowft 
upon the earth, would stretch from Portland, 
Maine, to New Orleans, Louisiana, and from 
Savannah, Georgia, to Denver, Colorado. It 
would cover the whole continent of Europe 
with Russia left out, and have a half million 
square miles to spare. It is over half as large 
is the whole Chinese Empire, being nearly 
;>ne-third larger than China proper, and one- 
/ourth larger than India. Side by side within 
the walls of this city there would be more 
than room for forty-nine Pennsylvanias, four- 
teen Delawares, one Rhode Island and two 
Districts of Columbia. The whole city is sur- 
rounded by a wall 144 cubits, or over two 
hundred feet, in thickness. 

But these figures have to do only with the 
flat area of the city. The record declares that 
the height of the city is equal to its length 
and breadth. I do not know what this can 
mean, unless it means what it says. The city 
is a cube, measuring fifteen hundred miles in 
length and breadth and height: the Word 
of God solemnly assures us that "the length 
and the breadth and the height thereof are 
equal." It was this city that Jesus had in 
mind when He said : "In my Father's house 



126 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



are many mansions. I go to prepare a place 
for you." He is now at work upon our build- 
ing, not made with hands, eternal, in the 
heavens. In due time He will come again to 
receive us unto Himself. God speed the day! 

The New Jerusalem will contain no Temple, 
for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the 
Lamb are the Temple thereof. The city will 
have no need for sun or moon, for the Lamb 
is its lamp. And the nations shall walk in 
the light thereof. Nothing unclean or unholy 
shall enter those portals, but only they which 
are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. 

This heavenly city, like the earthly one, will 
have a river. It is the River of the Water 
of Life, flowing out of the throne of God and 
of the Lamb. Its banks will be shaded by the 
Tree of Life, bearing fruit every month, the 
heavenly food for the heavenly people, and its 
leaves will be for the healing of the nations. 
The curse is forever wiped out to give place 
to the throne of God and of the Lamb. He is 
seen there surrounded \>y His servants ren- 
dering glad service, with His name on their 
foreheads. How much better this than the 
horrid mark of the beast ! "And they shall 
reign for ever and ever." 

"These Words Are True." 

O, Master, is it all true? Is it all true? 
Listen: Jesus Our Lord is speaking through 
•JHis angel and John is writing it down : "And 



THE TIME IS AT HAND. 



127 



He said unto me, 'These words are faithful 
and true ; and the Lord, the God of the spirits 
of the prophets, sent His angel to show unto 
His servants the things which must shortly 
come to pass. And behold, I come quickly. 
Blessed is He that keepeth the words of the 
prophecy of this book/ " 

John forgets himself and again falls in ad- 
oration at the angel's feet, and is again re- 
buked, with the warning, "Worship God!" 

Then the apostle is commanded not to seal 
up the words of the prophecy of this book 
"for the time is at hand." Daniel was given 
exactly opposite instructions concerning his 
book (Dan. 12:4) : "Thou, O Daniel, shut up 
the words, and seal the book, even to the Time 
of the End." The Time of the End is upon us, 
and neither Daniel nor The Revelation is now 
sealed. It is the privilege and the duty of 
every Christian to know and understand them. 

When the end of the Millennial Age is come, 
the door of grace will indeed be shut. After 
that time is passed there will be no more in- 
vitations for men to come to God. The con- 
dition of the sinner will then be fixed and un- 
changeable, except that it may grow worse 
and worse. The unrighteous and the filthy 
will do unrighteousness and filthiness still or 
"yet more" (R. V. margin). On the other 
hand, the righteous and the holy shall be priv- 
ileged to grow in righteousness and holiness 
still or "yet more." This is the decree of the 



128 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION, 



Coming One, the Alpha and the Omega, the 
First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. 
Within the city are the blessed, and without 
are the accursed. The testimony is plain and 
it is sure. 

These things are for the Christian ; they are 
the message of the Lord Jesus "for the 
churches. " "I Jesus have sent my angel to 
testify unto you these things for the church- 
es." "I am the Root and the Offspring of 
David, the Bright, the Morning Star." (v. 16.) 
He is the Sun of Righteousness to Israel, but 
to the Church He is the Bright and Morning 
Star, rising long before the Sun, to herald the 
dawn of the approaching day. 

And yet there is room ! Is any sinner out of- 
Christ reading these words? To such "the 
Spirit and the bride say, "Cornel" That 
"Come!" is from the very heart of God and it 
has been sounding out for thousands of years. 
"And he that heareth, let him say, Come!" 
Pass along the word, "Come!" "And he that 
is athirst, Come!" O, how He wants you! 
He cannot give you up, and His long suffering 
leadeth you to repentance; His long suffering 
is salvation. And yet again: "He that will — 
whosoever will — let him take the water of life 
freely." 

Now comes a warning. Men must not 
meddle with God's book. If any man alters 
it in any way, his doom is irretrievably sealed, 
for God shall add the plagues to him and take 



THE SAVIOUR'S PARTING WORD. 129 



away his part from the Tree of Life and the 
Holy City. 

His Parting Message. 

We have reached the end of The Revelation 
and of the Bible itself. There is but one more 
word, and in that word we shall hear the part- 
ing message of our Saviour. For centuries 
there is to be deep silence. The Word of God 
is to be precious, for there will be no open 
vision in those days. (Compare I, Sam. 3: 1.) 
We strain our ears to catch the final word 
from the lips of our blessed Lord. What shall 
it be? Now He speaks and as we listen we 
hear: "Surely, I come quickly!" 

Blessed words ! Forgotten, indeed, and set 
at naught by the world and even by hosts of 
His own professed followers, but precious to 
many who have been privileged to realize in 
some measure the power of the blessed hope! 

"Quickly?" someone asks. What did He 
mean by that, when He must have known He 
would not come for nearly two thousand 
years? Did He mean to deceive? God for- 
bid! No; for this word translated "quickly" 
does not necessarily mean "soon," but, rather, 
"suddenly." He did not promise to come soon, 
but He meant us to understand that when 
He comes it will be suddenly and without fur- 
ther warning. We are to be ever prepared, 
with our loins girt about and our lamps burn- 
ing. This is ever our place and position, 



130 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



"serving the living and true God and waiting 
for His Son from Heaven." 

"Surely, I come quickly!" This is His 
word ; and our hearts leap with the responsive 
echo voiced by the beloved disciple — "Amen ! 
Even so, COME, LORD JESUS !" 

"Lord Jesus, come! 

Nor let us longer roam 

Afar from Thee and that bright place 

Where we shall see Thee face to face. 

Lord Jesus, come! 

"Lord Jesus, come! 
Thine absence here we mourn; 
No joy we know apart from Thee, 
No sorrow in Thy presence see. 
Come, Jesus, come! 

*Loid Jesus, come! 

And claim us as Thine own; 

With longing hearts the path we tread 

Which Thee on high to glory led. 

Come, Saviour, come! 

"Lord Jesus, come! 

And take Thy people home; 

That all Thy flock, so scattered hen 

With Thee in glory may appear. 

Lord Jesus, come!" 



THE BEATITUDES OF THE REVELATION. 131 



CONCLUSION. 

Reluctantly do we turn, even for a moment, 
from this wonderful book, convinced that we 
have only barely touched the edge of its riches 
and that "there is yet much land to be pos- 
sessed. " It is surely to be hoped that these 
studies we have had together may stimulate 
each oi us to give more and more attention 
to this blessed Revelation of Jesus Christ. 

Seven times within the book the word 
"blessed" occurs, thus speaking to us of the 
completeness of the blessing laid up for them 
that love God ? for them that are the called ac- 
cording to His purpose: 

First — "Blessed is he that readeth, and they 
that hear the words of the prohpecy, and keep 
the things which are written therein : for the 
time is at hand." (Ch. 1 : 3.) This word 
ought to drive every child of God to a careful 
and prayerful study of The Revelation. 

Second — "Blessed are the dead which die in 
the Lord from henceforth ; yea, saith the Spirit, 
that they may rest from their labors ; for their 
works do follow them." (Ch. 14:13.) This 
is God's word of sympathy and encourage- 
ment for His faithful servants suffering under 
the beast and false prophet. 

Third — "Blessed is he that watcheth, and 
keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and 
they see his shame." (Ch. 16: 15.) There is 
reference here to the old Eastern custom of 



132 SIMPLE STUDIES IN THE REVELATION. 



taking away the garment of a sentinel sleeping 
at his post, and thus disgracing him. Let us 
watch, lest that day overtake us as a thief. 

Fourth — "Blessed are they which are bidden 
to the marriage supper of the Lamb." (Ch. 
19:9.) Blessed, indeed! And woe to that 
man who neglects the invitation until it is too 
late and the door is shut! 

Fifth — "Blessed and ho!y is he that hath 
part in the first resurrection." (Ch. 20:6.) 
Thus is our blessed hope ever kept before us. 

Sixth — "Blessed is he that keepeth the 
words of the prophecy of this book." (Ch. 
22 : 7.) They are His words, and to whom else 
can we go? He has the words of eternal life. 

Seventh — "Blessed are they that wash their 
robes, that they may have the right to the 
Tree of Life and may enter in by the gates into 
the city." (Ch. 22 : 14.) A very important 
correction has been made here by the revisers. 
It is not a question of gaining an entrance by 
the keeping of commandments, else we should 
all miserably perish ; but the blessing is for 
those who wash their robes and make them 
white in the blood of the Lamb. 

"The blood! The blood! 

Is all my plea. 
-The blood! The blood! 

It cleanseth me." 

"The Grace of the Lord Jesus 
Be with the Saints. Amen." 



r 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: July 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 



